Two nights at the beautiful new Agkol Renaissance Boutique Hotel in Urfa with soundproof windows but one drawback. This hotel is located a good 30-minute walk away from the bazaars. Oh yes…one other teensy thing discovered the next morning. Water floods out from under the entire shower base, all over the bathroom floor. I guess a person can’t have everything. If readers don’t mind, I’ll refer to “Sanliurfa” as Urfa throughout my articles.

A short walk around this new, modern area with many doner kebob stands and restaurants in the vicinity. At 3:00p, Oz escorted the group on a short ride to the Sanliurfa Museum, an optional excursion that, unfortunately, everyone but us wanted to see. A few private words with Oz later about that. Scheduled visits on a tour are one thing. Being forced to join an “optional excursion” is another. Steve and I occupied ourselves walking around the garden, looking at the interesting statues. (By the way, group consensus was that this museum is a miss.)

Another short ride to where we began exploring the biblical history of Urfa; the 13th century Halilur Rahmm Mosque houses the spot where Abraham fell to the ground (story below). FYI: Jews, Christians, and Muslims consider Abraham father of the people of Israel, and he is referred to as “Our Father” in the Koran. Abraham is a prophet of Islam and the ancestor of Muhammad through his first son Ishmael.

A short version of the Abraham legend to refresh biblical history – King Nimrod became angry that Abraham was walking around breaking idols and ordered him to be immolated on a funeral pyre, but God turned the fire into ashes. Nimrod then ordered him to be thrown off the cliff from where the citadel now stands but Abraham landed safely in a bed of roses. Halilur Rahmm Mosque houses the spot where Abraham fell to the ground. Unfortunately, we couldn’t enter because prayers had just begun.

This area of Urfa is a symbolic recreation of this story. Two pools of water filled with sacred carp is the symbolic place of Abraham’s landing in the bed of roses. It is said that if anyone eats the carp, they will go blind. (Explain, why carp are sacred and what they have to do with the story of Abraham? Got me!) Since we couldn’t enter the mosque, the group began walking alongside the long rectangular pool…View image, watching people buying fish food for one-half a Turkish Lira to feed the carp creating a massive frenzy in the water…View image.

Another section of the gardens surrounding the pools are filled with roses. The pools are fed by a spring at the base of Damlacik Hill on which the citadel/castle is built.