Halfeti

Halfeti is a small town on the Euphrates in Southeastern Anatolia, Turkey near Şanlıurfa. It's a pretty location in a rocky valley with cliffs dropping down to the river.

Understand

In 1999 this section of the Euphrates was dammed and half of old Halfeti was submerged. Many people and businesses relocated to "new" Halfeti, a few kilometres inland from the river. In the late 2010s, old Halfeti began to draw visitors.

Get in

There are direct dolmuş from Şanlıurfa, though these are not very frequent. Alternatively you can take a dolmuş to Birecik and from there take another dolmuş directly to Halfeti.

• A dolmuş from Gaziantep to Birecik is 8 TL. (March 2016)
• A dolmuş from Birecik to Halfeti is 5 TL. (March 2016)

Get around

Halfeti is very small and easy to walk around.

A dolmuş from lower to upper Halfeti may cost you 2 TL.

See

The old mosque

The Mosque of Halfeti, partly inundated and ergo abandoned.

The fortress of Rumkale, best viewed from the river.

Do

River cruise

While restaurants and probably hotels can arrange boat tours, your best option is to go to the Halfeti Marina (at the southern end of the village near the entrance/exit road). Prices should be calculated per boat. For example a boat with one person could cost 100 TL but if ten people are on the boat it should be 10 TL per person. Boat tours generally last half an hour, costing the boat operator a maximum of 40 TL.

You can go for a cruise on one of the big motor boats, they welcome around 30-40 persons. The cruise is ~one hour long and takes you to briefly see the sunken mosque. The landscapes are amazing, but you should be prepared to extremely loud music during the whole time. Boats leave the port every 10-15 minutes. Price is 75TL per person (May 2023).

Eat

There are many restaurants in Halfeti.

Riverside restaurants: (south to north)

• Altinirmak Duba
• Hos Geldiniz Firat
• Asikan
• Firat Yüzer
• (Closed)
• Sini Duba
• Siyah Kösk Duba - Salim'in Yeri
• Cesm-i Han
• Taskonak
• Duba Baskan'in Yeri
• Beyaz Saray Yali

Sleep

The prices here are very expensive. A basic hotel will cost you the minumum of ~700 TL a night for a double room (May 2023).

• 1 Gulkonagi Butik Hotel, Orta Cadde 26, ☏ +90 541 534 6219. (updated Apr 2016)
• 2 Socrates Hotel Halfeti (Halfeti Socrates Antik Konukevleri), Eski Halfeti Simaliye Mah. Orta Cad. No:13/1, ☏ +90 414 751 5022. (updated Apr 2016)