The church built in the name of Mor Behnam and his sister Saro, now known as the Kırklar church, takes both of its names from early Christian legend and is a building of the middle of the sixth century. The ceiling section, carried on arches resting on twelve massive columns running east to west, is built of regular cut stone.
The church became the administrative centre of Syriac Mardin: after 1293, when it became the seat of the Syriac Orthodox patriarchate here, the spiritual and administrative affairs of the community were directed from it. Patriarchs and metropolitans at first lived in rooms with cut-stone ceilings in the church courtyard. In 1850 a new patriarchate building was raised in place of those rooms, and in 1925 the space was enlarged and a reception hall of cut stone was added beside it. A school was opened here in 1799, known to have been active between 1825 and 1899, with teaching continuing until 1928. To find the church, go along the first avenue, pass the Şeyh Çabuk Mosque, and take the street on the left seventy or eighty metres further on.
Getting there
- Access
- On 1. Cadde, seventy or eighty metres past the Şeyh Çabuk mosque, turn into the street on the left.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Mardin as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 3.1 °C in January to 29.9 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May and October; rainfall is heaviest in January (114 mm) and lightest in August (2 mm). Long-term means for 1940-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
