Harran Evleri, Traditional mud-brick houses in Harran, Turkey

Harran Evleri is a group of traditional mud-brick houses in Harran, a small town near Şanlıurfa in southeastern Turkey. Each house is built on a square or rectangular base and topped with one or more cone-shaped roofs, each covering a single room, with the rooms connected inside by arched openings.

Harran is considered one of the oldest continuously settled places in the world, with traces of occupation going back to around 6000 BC. The cone-shaped houses were officially protected as an archaeological and urban site in 1979, and one of them was later restored and opened to visitors as the Harran Cultural House.

The cone-shaped roofs are built from brick rather than wood because trees are scarce in this part of Turkey. Visitors walking through the area can stop at small cafes inside some of the houses to try local drinks like murra, a traditional coffee-like beverage.

The houses are in the center of Harran and easy to reach on foot from the main road, though the surrounding lanes are narrow and unpaved in places. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons to visit, as summers in this part of Turkey get very hot.

The thick mud-brick walls keep the interior cool in summer and warm in winter without any heating or cooling system, so a single small fire was once enough to heat several rooms at once. Each cone corresponds to exactly one room, which meant families could grow their home over time simply by adding a new cone.

• Address: İbni Teymiye, 63510 Harran/Şanlıurfa, Türkiye
• Phone: [phone]
• GPS coordinates: 36.86086,39.03597
• Latest update: September 9, 2026 14:25