Mor Gabriel Monastery, also called Deyrulumur, stands in Turabdin in the Midyat district of Mardin, a region long identified as the homeland of the Syriac community. Türkiye's tourism agency describes it as the oldest Syriac Orthodox monastery still standing anywhere.
It was founded in 397 by Mor Shmuel and Mor Shemun, which gives it some sixteen centuries of history, and it grew over that span on gifts and endowments that included contributions from Roman emperors.
The fabric is Midyat cut stone. Parts of the complex survive from the fifth and sixth centuries, together with Byzantine mosaics, domes and carved portals. The agency records that it has been spoken of as a second Jerusalem.
The name has shifted over time. Early on the monastery was known after its founders. Later the Syriac Dayro d'Umro — the priests' house — wore down into Deyr-el-Umur, and Turkish made Deyrulumur of that. What people say today honours Mor Gabriel himself, metropolitan bishop of Turabdin in the seventh century, who did much to build the place up and was canonised afterwards.
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).
