Harran

The ruins of Harran                                                                    

Harran is an ancient city of southeast Turkey. It was flourishing by 2000BC, when it was a merchant outpost for trade between the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and it is mentioned in the Old Testament as the city of Haran. Pottery finds dating to around 6000BC suggests a truly ancient origin.

The Harranians developed their own cultural beliefs centring on a reverence of the stars and planets as symbols of divine harmony, but later identified themselves as Sabians, a sect of Islam. Harran became a renowned centre of study for astronomy, science and medicine until its sacking in the 11^th century. The 33m-high Astronomical Tower was once part of the city’s mosque, but is said to have been used by the Harranians to observe the movements of the stars.

The view of Harran Plain from Göbekli Tepe

Harran Plain is a vast expanse of land, broken by Karaca Dağ or Black Mountain, where the wild ancestor of domestic wheat still grows; the ancient and sacred city of Sanliurfa; and the ridgeline where the 12,000-year-old temple of Göbekli Tepe stands. It has been the centre of spiritual and cultural development since the dawn of civilisation. 

Sanliurfa with the hilltop site of Yeni Mahalle to the left

In Broken Skies, Harran is the home of the Irin or Watchers. The hilltop village of Kharsag which, like Eden, means ‘lofty enclosure’ and was a mythical home of the Anunnaki, is based on the recently discovered site of Yeni Mahalle, a Pre-Pottery-Neolithic site dating to 9600BC found on the rocky hillside at the centre of modern Şanliurfa.

This ancient site has long been buried and almost destroyed by later building, but the sanctity of this place has never waned. The caves beneath the hillside are revered in Muslim tradition as the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham. Balikli Göl, a pool of fish at its base, is said to have been formed when Abraham was cast into a fire by his enemy Nimrod. The flames were miraculously turned to water and the burning logs into fish, which remain sacred to this day.

Balikli Göl

The city of Harran doesn’t date back to the Pre-Pottery-Neolithic, as far as anyone knows, but its foundation could well have been inspired by the enduring observations of the astronomers and sky-watchers who lived on the plain three thousand years earlier. That is the line I’ve taken with the story.