Urfa

Three Turkish provinces, also known as the "Golden Triangle" of Upper Mesopotamia, may become the new favorite destination of Chinese tourists, according to hoteliers and tour operators.

The southeastern provinces of Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa and Mardin are home to well-known historical and ancient sites, including the famous Göbeklitepe.

The new Mardin-Ceylanpınar Irrigation Canal, which carries water from the Atatürk Dam in Şanlıurfa to Mardin in southeastern Türkiye, has brought water to agricultural land equivalent to the size of 70,000 football fields.

Within the scope of the Southeastern Anatolian Project (GAP), a multi-sector integrated regional development project, the canal was completed and put into service.

Around 1 million tourists are expected to visit the southern province of Şanlıurfa, where Göbeklitepe and Karahantepe, two of the oldest traces of civilization, are located, by the end of the year.

Cakalli is the founder of an informal Bosnian branch of a Turkish far-right group known as the Grey Wolves (Bozkurtlar), some of whose members support neo-fascist ideas. The Grey Wolves are officially called Idealist Hearths (Ulku Ocaklari) and their organisation is affiliated with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party, MHP, which is an ally of the Turkish ruling party.

Göbeklitepe, thousands of years old Neolithic archaeological site in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, may lure as many as 5 million foreign tourists in the next five years, Culture and Tourism Minister Nuri Ersoy has said.

The excavation works in Göbeklitepe, a 12-000-year-old Neolithic archaeological site in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, may continue for decades, an expert has said.

"The site unearthed until today is not even 10 percent of all the complex that is still underground," Necmi Karul, a member of the Göbeklitepe Science Board, told Demirören News Agency.

Göbeklitepe, a 12,000-year-old Neolithic archaeological site in southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, may have been made by aliens, the city's mayor says.

"The statues in Göbeklitepe depict something other than humans. They seem to be coming from somewhere else. They remind me of aliens," Zeynel Abidin Beyazgül told daily Milliyet on April 25.

The remains of a 12th-century madrasah have been unearthed in the Harran ruins, which is one of the oldest settlements in the world and on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.

Discovery Channel, one of the best-known documentary channels in the world, has begun filming documentaries on history in important places of the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, particularly Göbeklitepe, which is considered the "zero point of history."

The Culture and Tourism Ministry and the Turkish Tourism Development and Promotion Agency (TGA) have introduced the Stone Hills, which host the first examples of settled life and social communities in the world, at an event held at the Şanlıurfa Museum.

The opening ceremony of the "Karahantepe and Neolithic Man" exhibition was also held during the event.