Çiğ köfte
Spiced bulgur and meat
Fine bulgur kneaded at length with finely pounded lean meat, isot pepper, onion and tomato paste, then mixed with fresh herbs.
Southeastern Anatolia
Şanlıurfa
Urfa
In the cooking of Şanlıurfa, one name keeps coming up: isot. This dried pepper gives its flavor to çiğ köfte, where fine bulgur is kneaded at length with pounded lean meat. Isot also seasons Urfa ciğer kebabı, eaten at all hours of the day. Lamb liver and tail fat are grilled over charcoal, then wrapped in flatbread with fresh herbs. From there, you can follow the eggplant grown in Birecik, which meets lamb on two different plates. In patlıcanlı kebap, it shares the skewer with hand-minced lamb. In kıymalı söğürme, it is mashed with garlic and finished with fried minced lamb and hot clarified butter. Feasts and weddings bring üzlemeli pilav to the table. This is white rice cooked with clarified butter and topped with lamb, split chickpeas, sultanas and grape molasses. Even the fat in these pilafs and kebabs has a local name: Urfa sade yağı, clarified butter made from the milk of İvesi sheep. A journey that starts with isot reaches from Birecik’s eggplant all the way to the milk of the İvesi sheep.
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A table seasoned with isot
Kebab grills, bulgur and the deep red of isot pepper.
Signature dishes
Explore pepper, bread and shared meals without turning religious narratives into recipe dates.
Lahmacun
Thin flatbread with minced lamb
Thin unleavened dough spread with minced meat, onion, spices and isot pepper and baked.
Urfa ciğer kebabı
Grilled lamb liver skewers
Small cubes of lamb liver and tail fat grilled on skewers over charcoal, seasoned with isot and wrapped in flatbread with herbs.
Urfa patlıcanlı kebabı
Lamb and eggplant skewers
Skewers of hand-minced lamb alternating with slices of Birecik eggplant, grilled over charcoal.
Şanlıurfa-Style Stuffed Eggplant
Whole eggplants with minced lamb tucked into deep slits, cooked gently with tomato and peppers.
Urfa içli köftesi
Fried stuffed bulgur shells
Bulgur shells filled with spiced minced lamb and deep-fried, served with ayran and salad.
Yumurtalı köfte
Bulgur köfte with fried egg
Fine bulgur kneaded with isot, tomato paste and onion, then mixed with eggs fried in clarified butter and fresh herbs.
Kıymalı söğürme
Roasted eggplant with minced lamb
Roasted Birecik eggplant mashed with garlic, topped with fried minced lamb and hot clarified butter.
Üzlemeli pilav
Rice with lamb and raisins
White rice topped with lamb, split chickpeas, sultanas and grape molasses, made with clarified butter for feasts and weddings.
Mırra
Strong bitter coffee
Coffee boiled for a long time until it is strong and bitter, served in small sips.
Local ingredients
İsot
Dried Şanlıurfa pepper that seasons çiğ köfte, lahmacun and kebabs.
Guide not written yetBirecik patlıcanı
Eggplant grown in Birecik, used in Urfa’s eggplant kebabs and söğürme.
Guide not written yetUrfa sade yağı
Clarified butter from İvesi sheep’s milk, used in Urfa’s pilafs and kebabs.
Guide not written yetUrfa peyniri
White cheese of sheep, goat or cow milk, eaten fresh or ripened in brine.
Guide not written yetFood culture
Şanlıurfa joined UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network in the field of Music in 2023. Sıra gatherings connect music, conversation and food in the regional cultural account. Hospitality narratives associated with Abraham remain meaningful cultural traditions. They are distinguished here from verifiable archaeological history. Music recognition is also distinct from a World Heritage inscription or a food-product certification.
The taste of isot
Isot pepper seasons çiğ köfte, lahmacun and the liver kebabs eaten at all hours of the day.
Lamb and eggplant
Birecik eggplant is grilled with lamb on skewers, layered in kazan kebabı and mashed for söğürme.
What to bring home
- Isot pepper
- Urfa clarified butter
- Menengiç coffee
- Pistachios
- Hand-made felt
- Copper coffee pots
History & landscape
One of the most striking windows onto the past of Şanlıurfa province is Göbekli Tepe, in the Germuş mountains of south-eastern Anatolia. Here, in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, hunter-gatherers raised monumental round-oval and rectangular structures. Their distinctive T-shaped pillars, carved with images of wild animals, were cut from the adjacent limestone plateau. Because similar imagery appears at contemporaneous sites across Upper Mesopotamia, the site points to a close social network linking these communities.
In the city itself, the story gathers around water. The Balıklıgöl complex brings together the Halil-ur Rahman and Ayn Zeliha lakes, the canals connecting them, and historic mosques and madrasas. The fish in Halil-ur Rahman Lake are considered sacred, because of narrations linked to the Prophet Ibrahim. Rising just south of the complex, Şanlıurfa Castle carries on its summit two monumental Corinthian columns erected by the Edessa King Ma’nu IX; the eastern column bears an inscription in Syriac.
