Mardin

Mardin is a city in southeastern Turkey. The capital of Mardin Province, it is known for the Artuqid architecture of its old city, and for its strategic location on a rocky hill near the Tigris River that rises steeply over the flat plains.It lies on the southern slopes of a broad highland that rises to an elevation of 3,450 feet (1,052 metres) and overlooks extensive limestone plateaus. The locality receives more rainfall than the lower plains and has hot summers and cold winters.

A ruined Roman citadel, rebuilt in medieval times, crowns the summit of the highland as evidence of Mardin’s earlier existence as the Marida (Marde, Maride, Merida) of antiquity. Marida was taken by the Seljuq Turks in the late 11th century and was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Selim I in 1516. The Ulu Cami (Great Mosque), dating from the Seljuq period, and the Sultan İsa Medresesi, a religious school built in the 14th century, are still standing.Mardin is an important regional trading centre on the east-west trade routes of southern Anatolia. It is connected by a branchline with the rail line between Istanbul and Baghdad and is linked by road with Gaziantep (west), Aleppo (southwest, in Syria), Nusaybin (southeast), and Diyarbakir (northeast).