GAZİANTEP PROVINCIAL DIRECTORATE OF CULTURE AND TOURISM

Rumkale

       

 

      Rumkale is placed on a hill where Euphrates and Merzimen Creek is united and which is covered with high rocks. The architecture ruins in Rumkale, which is named as Şitomrat, Kal-a Rhomayta, Hromklay, Runculat, Kal-at-el Rum, Kal-at-el Müslimin and Kale-i Zerrin (Golden Citadel), since Ancient Age, carries the character of Late Roman and Middle Age. Rumkale has two main Gates on the East and West. Eastern entrance is built on Euphrates and Western Entrance is built on Merzimen Creek and it has such a natural architecture that Moltkewho visited Rumkale in 1838 said “It’s so hard to tell where rocks end and where the man-made work starts”. The Gates and city walls surrounding Rumkale have been restored with the coordination of Gaziantep Provincial and Tourism Administration and Special Provincial Administration. St. Nerses Church If we accept that Partriarch St.Nerses had the church built or it was built for his memory who died in Rumkale in 1773, we may think the construction’s building date as the end of the 12th century. Church was transformed into a mosque after Turks conquered it in the 17th century. Monastery of Barşavma Monastery is the North of the flooded citadel. The Saint of Yakubi Barşavma had it made in the 13th century. Some parts of the two adjacent construction has stayed till today. Its North part is formed by a mass rock. This place plays an important role in history of Christianity since Yohannes, one of the disciples of Christ, came Rumkale and broadcasted the religion here during Roman Period. That Yohannes hid one of the copies of the Holy Bible into a cave in Rumkale and then the copies were taken from here to Beriut is being told. In the 11th century Rumkale was in an important role with the name of Hromgla. In 1113 Grigaris III bought the citadel and placed the archbishopiricacy here. Sultan of Memluk, Melik el-Eşref, who was unsuccessful in the siege in 1279, besieged Rumkale again and conquered it with the order of the sultan, Sancar Suca, regent of Syria, made the citadel fixed. Then it took the name of Kal’at el-Müslimin. After that, it was named Kale-i Zerrin. (the Golden Citadel), although Rumkale was reused as an end citadel during Memluks, it couldn’t live its old, bright period again. Rumkale is a natural and man-made wonder with an emerald green lake that surrounds its three sides and precipitous rocky hills that surround the lake.