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The ur Ur? A beautiful pool shimmers with carp in front of the Halil Rahman Mosque in Urfa, a town in southern Turkey about an hour’s drive from Haran, where Abraham and his family sojourned after leaving Ur. Local Arab tradition insists that Urfa is ancient Ur and that Abraham was born in a nearby cave. The pool is known as the Lake of Abraham the Beloved. According to legend, while Abraham rested before journeying to Canaan, locals captured him and threw him onto a burning funeral pyre. He was saved when the flames turned into this body of water. Wood from the fire turned into fish—holy carp that inhabit the pool today and are still protected by law.