Along the Middle Euphrates River basin between Adiyaman And Syria (South-Eastern Anatolia)

Middle Euphrates Basin which is located on the west of Karacadağ volcanic block and in the south of South-eastern Taurus in the southeast of Turkey has distinctive geographical features. This basin can be separated to different branches in itself regarding to geomorphology like Adıyaman geosynclinals, Urfa- Gaziantep Plateau and Harran- Suruç graben systems in the very south. Northernmost Adıyaman Basin is located just on the west of the highland which arose from mostly the thrust faults and their drifts in the very complex geologic units which have different ages. This basin contains Adıyaman city, and here important settlements from Palaeolithic, Neolithic and even Bronze and Iron Ages appear because of its suitable living conditions (Pirin, Arsemlia, Samsat etc.). Urfa- Gaziantep Plateau is a karstic plateau which is partly observed the basalt eruptions. Euphrates River flows in canyons through this plateau. Şanlıurfa, one of the important cities of the region, locates in the south of this plateau. There are important ancient settlements in the Euphrates River Valley in the plateau (Zeugma, Rumkale). In the very south, Harran- Suruç plains may not distinguished as grabens at first sight and these plains has close geographical features to that of Syrian- Arabia regions. However, due to the water for irrigation which comes from the dams at Euphrates River, these plains have a great agricultural potential. Nevertheless, because of both the constructed dams and inaccurate irrigation and agronomic practice, there are some serious problems for cultural inheritance. Ancient Harran ruins, which has one of the first universities of the world and is known for rural settlements with vaulted domes, are situated in this zone.In this study, was synthesized a geographical and regional landscape by combining researches made in the region for many years.