Urfa is in southeastern Anatolia, about thirty miles north of the Syrian border.

NEWYORKER: The Sanctuary

Where a non-Urfa driver might speed up or slow down, it seemed, an Urfa driver preferred simply to honk his horn.

NEWYORKER: The Sanctuary

Late one October evening, I flew into Urfa, the city believed by Turkish Muslims to be the Ur of the Chaldeans, the birthplace of the prophet Abraham.

NEWYORKER: The Sanctuary

I, too, was in town on a pilgrimage, visiting a site that predates Abraham and Job and monotheism by some eight millennia: a vast complex of Stonehenge-style megalithic circles in the Urfa countryside.

NEWYORKER: The Sanctuary

Most people still call it Urfa.

NEWYORKER: The Sanctuary

We discussed Urfa traffic.

NEWYORKER: The Sanctuary