The widest stone bridge arch in Anatolia
A single 38-metre span rising 19 metres, said to be tall enough to fit Hagia Sophia's dome.
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One stone arch, about 38 metres wide and rising roughly 19 metres above the Batman River: it is the widest surviving stone bridge arch in all of Anatolia, larger than any Roman one still standing there. The Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi wrote that the dome of Hagia Sophia would fit beneath it, and standing on the bank looking up into that hollow you are inclined to believe him. The Artuqid ruler Husam al-Din Timurtash of Mardin had it built between roughly 1147 and 1154, after an older bridge on the same spot collapsed in 1144; the local chronicler Ibn al-Azraq recorded the whole saga at the time. What sets it apart is that it was never just a crossing but a caravan stop. Two small vaulted chambers are built into the shoulders of the arch, where travellers and their animals sheltered from the region's hard winters, and on the western pier two carved figures, one standing and one seated, are still legible if you look for them. The bridge is 150 metres long and seven wide, and it carried traffic for eight centuries until a modern road bridge opened beside it in the 1950s. Since then it has been closed to vehicles and left to pedestrians, restored in 1989 and placed on UNESCO's Tentative World Heritage List in 2016. Silvan municipality uses it as its logo, which tells you everything. Getting there realistically means a car: about 100 km east of Diyarbakır on the Silvan–Batman road, an hour and a half or so, and no public bus stops at the bridge itself. The sensible plan is to make it the first stop on a long day heading east, Malabadi first, then Hasankeyf on the Tigris some 60 km further, and back to Diyarbakır by evening. Entry is free and the site is always open; by the water there is a simple café-restaurant and picnic spots to sit, so it suits families, though the path down to the bank is rough, uneven earth and a pushchair will not get far. The best light is in the morning from the east bank, when the sun catches the yellow stone. In spring the river runs high and fast and the banks turn green, which is the finest time to come; in August the heat on these plains approaches forty degrees by noon, so keep it a short morning visit. Half an hour to an hour is plenty: a walk across, a stroll along the bank, a photo from the side. Do not drive out for it alone, but if you are heading to Hasankeyf or Batman anyway, skipping it would be a loss.
A single 38-metre span rising 19 metres, said to be tall enough to fit Hagia Sophia's dome.
Two vaulted chambers built into the shoulders of the arch once sheltered winter caravans.
Two carved figures, one standing and one seated, from the twelfth century.
Malabadi village, Silvan–Batman road (D-360), Silvan district, Diyarbakır Province
No; the visit takes half an hour and the drive is an hour and a half each way. Fold it into a day that continues 60 km east to Hasankeyf and the whole day earns itself.
Yes; it has been closed to vehicles since the 1950s and is open to pedestrians at all times, and you can go down to the bank beneath it, though the path is unpaved earth.