Not without stopping by Balıklıgöl, a place frequented by tourists coming to Şanlıurfa.. As the weather approaches dark, we will first visit Balıklıgöl and its surroundings.. Afterwards, we will fill our bellies with the famous Urfa dishes.. While looking for a place to park our car, we come across the muddy streets of Urfa.. As you enter from the main streets, the mud-flowing streets resemble slums.. At every corner, we see liver sellers, peddlers with their kebab carts and shops that represent the food industry as much as possible.
Finally, we find a place to park.. While we try to make sure that the car will not be towed, we leave our car behind with the thought that we will not stay long.. We are afraid because of similar examples that happened to us in the cities we visited before.. Cars with foreign license plates are the first ones to be withdrawn.
All sidewalks are covered with peddlers selling electronic products.. Battery-operated radios, walkmans, rosary counters, prayer clocks, which are sold for very small sums, are waiting for their buyers spread out on the pavement.
In general, people with a religious appearance walk towards the lake as if they are going to Hajj accompanied by prayers.
After crossing the stairs, we come to the shore of the lake.
When we turn our eyes back, Urfa Castle and the hill look at us with its cliffs with its great splendor.. The rose gardens and the lake with the fish in it give people peace “from a distance.”. The lake surface also has a strange appearance due to the wastes.. The fish, which seem to jump on the visitors at any moment, frighten people.
So, how did these fish get here?
Myths rather than science come into play to answer the question.. The most well-known and accepted legend is Hz.. Legend of Abraham.
“Once upon a time there lived a cruel ruler in this city.. Nemrut, who was ecstatic with these cruelties, started to think that he was God, and he built great temples and put his own statues in them.. He also pressured his people to worship him as God.
One night, Cruel Nemrut had a terrible nightmare in his sleep.. He jumped out of his bed covered in blood and sweat.. He immediately summoned all the priests and magicians of the palace and told them about his dream.. The notables of the soothsayers who listened to Nemrut’s dream interpreted Nemrut’s dream as follows: “Sir, a child who will be born in your kingdom will destroy your throne and reign, and will end your domination over your country.” stiffened. He asked them what precautions they could take in case of panic.. The high priest of the palace was thrown forward immediately; “My dear sir,” he said, “If you kill all the sons that will be born in your kingdom this year, forbid men and women to get close to each other during this year, and if you hang anyone who does the opposite, you will solve this problem.” ordered the killing of boys. He started to monitor the implementation of the rules, with one observer for every ten families living in his country.. Only because he trusted his chief advisor Azer so much, he did not need to put an observer over him and his family.
Thus, a year of terror and persecution in the city began. Nemrut had tens of thousands of children killed during this one year, and their families were scattered.. The whole country was groaning under this great cruelty of Nemrut.. At the end of a year, Nemrut again gathered all his advisers around him.. His astrologers said to him, “My lord, unfortunately, the measures we took were not enough.. The child who will destroy you and your throne will fall into the womb tomorrow night.”
After these words of the Nemrut soothsayers, an even greater panic fell.. And immediately he ordered all the men in the city to pack up and be taken out of the city, and to be banned from entering the city for two days.. While wandering around the city of Nimrod, he suddenly realized that he had forgotten the royal seal in his palace.. He immediately sent his most reliable man, Azer, to the palace to take his seal and bring it to him.. Azer went to the palace and took the seal.. On his way back, he thought of his wife.. When he arrived at his house, he could not control himself and was with his wife.. And thus, the Prophet who will destroy the cruel Nimrod. Abraham fell into the womb of his mother.
The priests gave the news to Nemrut that made him tremble with fear towards the morning.. “Unfortunately, our Lord, despite all the precautions we took, that child fell into the womb tonight” Nemrut was furious and ordered all boys born this year in his country to be killed.. His wife, who got pregnant from Azer that night, was hiding this situation from her husband and pretending to be fat.. When his birth time approached, he went to a small cave in the north of today’s Urfa Castle and gave birth to his child alone.. She came to the cave to breastfeed him once a day.. On the days he could not come, he was crying because of hunger and cold, thinking that his son might have died, but every time he saw the little boy alive in the cave he rushed to, he fled with happiness.. The gazelles, who used the cave as a shelter for themselves, were feeding this little boy with their own milk.. While walking on the mountain, they saw Ibrahim among the gazelles.. They caught it immediately and brought it to the palace.. Nemrut decided to take İbrahim, a young, robust and beautiful 15-year-old boy fed with gazelle milk, with him right away.. Thus, young İbrahim started to live in the palace and met another adopted son of Nemrut, young Zeliha, and became friends.. Ibrahim started to get angry because of the cruelty of Nemrut, who adopted him during the days he spent in the palace, to the people and worshiping idols.. One day, he shared these thoughts with his friend Zeliha and explained to her the pointlessness of worshiping these idols made of stone.. After breaking all of them, he placed the ax in his hand at the corner of the temple and hung it on the shoulder of the largest statue resembling Nimrod.. When Nemrut heard what had happened, he went crazy and ordered the person who did this to be found immediately.
After a short search, İbrahim was brought before Nemrut.. Nemrut “Did you do it?” When asked, he replied very calmly, “As you all can see, the ax stands on the shoulder of the biggest statue.. If he did, he did it.” Said. Nemrut got even more angry with this answer of Prophet Abraham, “Is there such nonsense?. It’s a lifeless piece of stone. How could he pick up an ax and do such a thing?” Hz. Ibrahim replied to Nemrut with a smile, “That’s what I wanted to tell you.. How can you worship these pieces of stone that you made with your own hands and expect justice, peace and abundance from them? If these stones were really God, they could protect themselves.”
Nemrut, who was very angry with this answer, immediately ordered Abraham to be caught and thrown into the fire.
Nemrut used the two large columns on the top of the mountain to the north of the castle as catapults. He decided to throw Hz.. At this very moment, Allah said: “O fire, be coolness and peace”.. Hz. As soon as Abraham fell on the fire, a small clear lake was formed in the place of the fire.. That gigantic fire prepared by Allah’s command into a lake; wood collected for fire also turned into fish. Black spots have formed on the back of the fish because the woods have burned a little.. Because he believed in his existence and was constantly looking for him, Allah called Abraham “Halilim”, that is, my friend.. That’s why this lake was called “Halilurrahman Lake”.
The lake, which consists of the tears that Zeliha shed, was named “Ayn-ı Zeliha Lake”, which means “Zeliha’s tears”.
Nemrut got even more angry with all this.. And continued to deny Allah. God sent him a mosquito with a crippled wing.. This mosquito entered Nemrut’s ear one night while he was sleeping and went up to his brain.. Days passed and Nemrut started to feel great pain in his head because of this fly.. He summoned all the magicians and physicians in his country to find a cure for his problem.. However, none of them could help Nemrut.. Every day, Nemrut hits him on the head with a special wooden mallet that he has prepared himself in order to reduce the pain a little bit.. As the pain increased, the severity of the mallet hits also increased.. In the end, he could not stand the pain of the gavel and his head was shattered and he died.”
After reading the legend on the relevant boards, we go to Urfa Castle.. This castle, which consists of very steep stairs and rocks, is worth seeing together with the cave where Prophet Abraham was born.
Looking at Şanlıurfa from the castle brings to our eyes the chilling beauties.
It’s time to wait. we say let’s catch the night. You need to stop by some flavor stops…
