Sebeterias, known locally as Diziktepe, lies 18 kilometres from Bingöl in the Murat valley, northwest of the river and its bridge. The provincial directorate counts it one of the three fortresses the Urartian king Menua built to hold the Bingöl highlands, and connects its name to Şebeteriyaş, the Urartian name for the town of Palu in what is now Elazığ. It closely resembles the Kral Kızı fortress in the Genç district.
Its position explains it better than its remains do. The castle sits on the Genç–Diyarbakır road, at the pass linking southeastern Anatolia to eastern Anatolia across a stretch of the Anti-Taurus that is very hard to cross; it was built small, as an outpost tower to keep that route safe rather than as a garrison. Evliya Çelebi, who saw it, described towers and walls of large stone laid out on a pentagonal plan.
Little is left. The Murat river runs immediately below the eastern side and has eaten away about two thirds of the site — one of the towers has fallen into the water. Soil extraction on the north and road building on the south have changed the shape of the ridge, which used to run north to south. On the surface a few stretches of wall, the rubble that came off them, and red-slipped pottery are what remain.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Bingöl as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -2.1 °C in January to 26.7 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June and September; rainfall is heaviest in January (137 mm) and lightest in August (4 mm). Long-term means for 1961-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
