Stock Photo - Sanliurfa, often simply known as Urfa in daily language (Kurdish: Riha, Arabic: al-Ruha, Syriac: Urhoy, Armenian: Owr´ha), in ancient times Edessa, is a city with 482,323 inhabitants 2009 estimate in south-eastern Turkey, and the capital of Sanliurfa Province. It is a city with a predominant Kurdish and Turkmen population. Urfa is situated on a plain under big open skies, about eighty kilometres east of the Euphrates River. The climate features extremely hot, dry summers and cool, moist winters. The legendary Pool of Sacred Fish Balikligöl where Abraham was thrown into the fire by Nimrod. The pool is in the courtyard of the mosque of Halil-ur-Rahman, built by the Ayyubids in 1211 and now surrounded by attractive gardens designed by architect Merih Karaaslan. The courtyard is where the fishes thrive. A local legend says seeing a white fish will open the door to the heavens. Turkey