Foreword

As one of the oldest and most significant settlement centres in human history, Şanlıurfa stands, with its rich cultural heritage, among the foremost cities not only of our country but of the world. From the pillars of Göbeklitepe and Karahantepe to the beehive houses of Harran, from the sites of faith around Balıklıgöl to the monumental works of Islamic civilisation, every corner of our province holds a most precious heritage that carries the traces of the past into the present.

Preserving this heritage and recounting it in the language of today are equally our shared responsibility. The Urfa Digital History and Culture Island was brought into being as the answer to that responsibility. Established on the shore of Balıklıgöl, in the very heart of the historic fabric, this centre invites its visitor not to stand before history but to step inside it.

Within the centre, thirteen eras from the Neolithic to the Republic are recounted as the visitor walks the length of a curved wall, while more than seventy historic places across our provincial centre and districts are presented through touch maps and digital showcases. All content rests on sources reviewed by experts and is offered in three languages: Turkish, English and Arabic.

To protect cultural heritage is not merely to safeguard the works of the past; it is to keep alive a city's memory, its identity and its accumulated civilisation. Our aim is not to tell the city in a single visit, but to call our guest out into the streets, the castle, the mounds and the plain of Şanlıurfa.

On this occasion I thank all our academics, specialists and teams who contributed to the establishment of the centre and the preparation of its content, and I wish this work to be of benefit to our province, our country and our world of culture.