Site Seeing: Land of Abraham’s Birth

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The city of Urfa (known as Şanlıurfa in Turkish) is a living tapestry of faith. Nestled in southeastern Turkey and revered as the “city of prophets,” Urfa is one of those places where the air itself seems thick with millennia of prayer and pilgrimage. For travelers and seekers interested in the roots of the Bible and the interplay of archaeology and belief, Urfa offers an unparalleled experience. It is a landscape where the narratives of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam converge with tangible force, from the cave believed to be the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham to the world’s oldest known […]

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Footnotes

1. Although Abraham’s presumed birthplace, “Ur of the Chaldeans” (Genesis 11:31), is often identified with the ancient city of Ur in southern Mesopotamia, many scholars consider Urfa to be a better candidate. See Hershel Shanks, “Abraham’s Ur—Is the Pope Going to the Wrong Place?” BAR, March/April 2000.

2. Ben Witherington III, “In the Beginning: Religion at the Dawn of Civilization,” BAR, January/February 2013.