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A historic stone bridge and water system are set to be brought back at Harran Selahaddin Eyyubi Castle Palace in Sanliurfa, where excavations have uncovered remains linked to the old entrance route and the moat surrounding the castle.
The work is being carried out at Harran, a site on UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List, under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's "Heritage for the Future Project."
Harran Archaeological Site Excavation Head Professor Mehmet Onal said the castle is one of the rare three-story palace examples from the Middle Ages to survive with surrounding moats.
Since March, excavation teams have been working around the moat and have brought to light a major section of its northern wall. Onal said the moat is 17 meters wide and 6 meters deep.
He noted that earlier work had already uncovered cut stone blocks from the bridge, as well as an Eyyubid-era inscription belonging to the main gate where the bridge once connected. This year's excavations have now revealed one of the bridge supports.
According to Onal, the area where the bridge will stand has been measured using laser scanning, while the project has been prepared in line with historic data.
Under a project prepared by the Sanliurfa Governor's Office, and subject to the approval of the regional conservation board, a stone bridge matching the ancient example is planned for the site.
The work is aimed at allowing visitors to enter the castle once again through the historic route. Onal said the project is expected to be completed by the end of the year, with visitors reaching the castle over the rebuilt bridge.
The bridge has been designed at around 10 meters high, taking the depth of the moat into account. Onal also said the walls leading down from the castle to the moat were built with a slope to keep water from damaging the structure.
Onal said Cullap Stream lies about 80 meters east of the castle and that, in the past, water from the stream was directed into the moat around the castle.
He added that large water wheels and mechanisms once stood in the area. Water was carried upward through this system and then transferred to the moat through clay pipes.
The planned system will set up a visual and functional version of the old water network. According to Onal, water will be taken from beside Cullap Stream through a water wheel, fed into the moat and then returned to the stream bed.
The aim is to help visitors see and better understand Harran's historic water system, while also making the castle's surrounding moat a clearer part of the archaeological site.
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