Rumkale

Rumkale stands on a rock promontory at the confluence of the Merzimen stream and the Euphrates, its walls following the cliff edges on three sides, and it has been fortified since antiquity - Assyrian, Roman, Byzantine, and then held for a long period as an Armenian ecclesiastical centre, the seat of a catholicos, before Mamluk conquest in the thirteenth century. Inside are the remains of the church of Saint Nerses, a mosque, cisterns, and a remarkable shaft cut vertically through the rock down to the river to secure the water supply. When the Birecik dam filled in 2000 the reservoir rose around the base of the promontory, so the fortress is now essentially an island: the approach is by boat from Halfeti, which is how everyone arrives, and the walls rising straight out of green water are the reason it photographs the way it does. Restoration has been under way and landing arrangements change.

What you actually see

• The cliff walls - fortification rising from the reservoir.
• The church remains - Saint Nerses and the ecclesiastical buildings.
• The water shaft - the vertical cut down to the river.
• The confluence - the Euphrates and the stream below.

When to go

April to June and September to November; summers here are extremely hot. Boats run daily in season and less often outside it.

Honest expectations

Access is by boat only and landing depends on restoration works - some trips circle without stopping. Confirm before paying. The site is exposed with no shade and uneven footing.

Nearby

Halfeti and its sunken village are the boat departure point; Birecik and its bald ibis station are downstream.