City
Edessa
Şanlıurfa
Listen to the story
At Edessa a splendid spring, still there today, was revered as the spot where Abraham meant to sacrifice Isaac. The city's name dates from Macedonian rule, when it was also called Antioch on the Callirrhoe after that very spring. It became the capital of the kingdom and province of Osrhoene, later a Roman colony, and often suffered from floods of its river, the Scirtus. After an earthquake under the emperor Justin the First it was rebuilt as Justinopolis. Today this is Şanlıurfa in Turkey, and the map marks it with a pair of towers.