The Diyarbakır Fortress is located in Diyarbakır, the main city in Turkey’s Southeast. The walls come from the old Roman city of Amida and were constructed in their present form in the mid-fourth century A.D. by the emperor Constantius II. They are the widest and longest complete defensive walls in the world after only the Great Wall of China. The fortress was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015 along with Hevsel Gardens, also in Diyarbakır.

When we first arrived in Turkey in 1996, embassy staff were prohibited from traveling to the Southeast due to a years-long conflict there between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by the US, Turkey and the EU, and the Turkish security forces. The situation eased up, and travel to the region was once again permitted, but driving around there was at times uncomfortable and uncertain. I remember police checkpoints on the main roads, and an unfriendly atmosphere in Diyarbakır while we were there.

Tigris River, posted earlier: