Halfeti: The Sunken Village, the Boat Trips and Rumkale

Why Halfeti Is Called a Sunken Town

The old town of Halfeti, known as Eski Halfeti, was flooded when the Birecik Dam filled the Euphrates. Wikipedia dates the flooding of the town to 1999 and lists the dam's opening as 2000, so most writers put the event around 1999 to 2000. The dam stands 62.5 m high from its foundation and was built on top of the ruins of ancient Zeugma. After the water rose, the district moved uphill: Sailingstone Travel puts Eski Halfeti about 9 km downhill from Yeni Halfeti, the new town. The Halfeti district had 41,662 inhabitants in 2022 according to Wikipedia.

What the water left behind is the reason people come. Eski Halfeti is only partially submerged, and so is the village of Eski Savaşan Köyü further upstream, and the quarter of Kale Meydanı was also submerged. Rooftops, walls and the upper part of a minaret break the surface of the reservoir. Wikipedia places Halfeti at 37°13′44″N 37°56′45″E near the east bank of the river, within a district of 609 km².

• The old town was flooded around 1999 to 2000 by the Birecik Dam reservoir
• Eski Halfeti and Eski Savaşan Köyü are both only partly submerged, not fully underwater
• The new town of Yeni Halfeti sits about 9 km uphill from the old one
• The Halfeti district counted 41,662 inhabitants in 2022

What You Actually See from the Water

The signature sight is the half-submerged mosque in Savaşan village. Sailingstone Travel says the mosque is said to date to the 19th century and was built by an Armenian, and that only the top half of its minaret is visible above the water. Cafés beside the minaret serve tea, sometimes with folk music, so boats stop here rather than simply drifting past.

It is worth setting expectations before you go. There is no online timetable for the boats according to Sailingstone Travel, which is why tours that include Halfeti handle the boat as part of a fixed day. Flypgs gives Halfeti an average annual temperature of 17.7 °C with about 458 mm of precipitation, more of it in winter than summer.

The Halfeti Boat Tour, Stop by Stop

The Halfeti boat tour is the main reason travelers make the detour. Wikipedia describes cruises on the Euphrates to the partly submerged old town and to Rumkale as a main attraction of the district. Sailingstone Travel describes the practical side from the ground: a sign at the boats advertised a trip for 25 TL, lasting about 90 minutes, including a tea stop by the sunken minaret. Rumkale comes into view 30 to 40 minutes into the ride. There is no online timetable.

The 25 TL figure is what one travel writer saw at the pier, and it comes from their report rather than an official tariff, so treat it as a hint about the shape of the trip and check the price on the day. Rumkale itself sits on a peninsula in the Birecik Dam reservoir in the Nizip district of Gaziantep Province, and Wikipedia notes it is reachable by boat from Zeugma as well as Halfeti. Turkish Airlines' blog suggests a route that links Çekem District, Savaşan Village and Rumkale in one go.

Rumkale's History on the Rock

Rumkale is a ruined fortress on the Euphrates in Gaziantep Province, about 50 km west of Şanlıurfa according to Wikipedia. Its recorded story is dense for such a small outcrop. Sailingstone Travel writes that the Count of Edessa sold Rumkale to the Armenian patriarch Gregory III in 1147, while Wikipedia's account has Grigor III Pahlavuni buying it in 1148 or 1150. Either way, the fortress became a seat of the Armenian Catholicos, who resided there from 1203 to 1293.

The Mamluks under al-Ashraf captured Rumkale in 1292 after a long siege according to Wikipedia, and renamed it Qal'at al-Muslimin. Sailingstone Travel dates the capture to 1293, so most summaries settle on 1292 to 1293. The fortress surrendered to the Ottomans in 1516, was depopulated in 1831, and Ibrahim Pasha bombarded the remaining buildings in 1832. South of the fortress, Flypgs says St. Nerses Church was built in 1173. The Birecik Dam stands on the ruins of ancient Zeugma, and the Eastern Turkey 8-Day Tour stops at the Zeugma Mosaic Museum.

The Halfeti Black Rose, Honestly Assessed

Halfeti's kara gül, the black rose, is the flower that made the town famous on the internet. Sailingstone Travel reports that the black rose is believed to grow only at Eski Halfeti, which is the strong local version of the story. Wikipedia takes a harder line and calls the claim that Halfeti is the only place on Earth with black roses an internet urban legend.

The absolute claim, that nowhere else on the planet produces such a rose, is the part Wikipedia rejects. Treat the black rose as a local story and check it for yourself.

The town itself is older than the dam story. Sailingstone Travel says Halfeti was founded in the 9th century BC by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III, and that the Armenian community of the town had vanished by the 1920s. The town has a layered past, which a short visit only sketches.

Distances and Routes

The published figures for the drive vary a little by source, which is why the table below shows each distance with the source that states it. Turkish Airlines' blog says Halfeti is reachable by private vehicle or by minibuses running from the Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep bus terminals. Flypgs puts the drive from Şanlıurfa GAP Airport at about 1 hour 30 minutes.

For context on the wider corridor, Şanlıurfa to Gaziantep is about 150 km by road according to Urfanatik, which also states the same article's figure of about 120 km, with the bus taking 2 h 20 min to 2 h 30 min and a private car 1 h 45 min. Şanlıurfa to Mardin is about 185 km by road and 2 to 2.5 hours by car per Urfanatik. The table shows the figures each source gives for Halfeti itself, so you can compare rather than average them.

Which Tours Include Halfeti

Among the trips compared on this site, Halfeti appears on the Eastern Turkey 8-Day Tour, which costs $1,259 per person and runs for 8 days from Gaziantep. The route lists Halfeti alongside the Zeugma Mosaic Museum, Mount Nemrut, Göbekli Tepe, Harran, Mardin, Midyat and Ani, with 7 hotel nights and the guide in the price. Two details matter for planning. Flights are included only in the all-included option, and the Halfeti boat ride is a paid extra on this tour, not part of the base price, as are the Akdamar Island boat and the Şanlıurfa dinner show.

The other listings on the site concentrate on the Şanlıurfa side: day trips from Istanbul by plane, day tours from Şanlıurfa, and two-day tours, none of which list Halfeti among their sites. If Halfeti is a priority, the 8-day route is the tour that reaches it, or you drive there independently from Şanlıurfa or Gaziantep using the distances above. For the anchor sight of the region, the homepage compares every Göbekli Tepe tour with what each one includes and leaves out.

• Eastern Turkey 8-Day Tour: $1,259 per person, 8 days, starts in Gaziantep, Halfeti boat is an extra
• None of the day tours from Şanlıurfa or Istanbul list Halfeti among their stops
• Independent visits work by car or minibus from the Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep bus terminals