Nothing certain is known about when the Memikan bridge in Batman was built. Compared with the stone bridges at Hasankeyf, Malabadi and Cizre, it shows a close resemblance to them in the masonry used. It may have been built after the Muslim conquest of the region in the seventh century, or raised on the wreck of a bridge left from antiquity.
The Memikan bridge once carried the trade of the settlements of the Garzan plain, in the district of Beşiri, and above all their dealings with Hasankeyf. It stands at a strategic point where the Silk Road, passing through this country, had to cross the Garzan stream, which otherwise gave no passage.
From antiquity to the first half of the Middle Ages this was a busy caravan road, running alongside the Garzan stream and carrying traffic on through Hasankeyf into northern Mesopotamia; it served for many years in the trade between the beyliks. The bridge on it is today in ruins.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Batman as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 2.6 °C in January to 30.3 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in March (76 mm) and lightest in July (2 mm). Long-term means for 1952-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
