The church of Saint George, also called the Kara Papaz church, stands at the north-east corner of the inner citadel of Diyarbakır, on the high rocks looking down to the Tigris. This position makes it the only church not standing within the walled city.
There is no certain information about when it was built; it is thought to have been raised in the third century AD. It is supposed to have been a temple of a polytheistic religion, and it may have been used as a fire temple in the Roman period as well. Under the Artuqids it served as the bath of the palace.
The building has been restored by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and is used today as an art gallery.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Diyarbakır as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 1.8 °C in January to 31 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May and October; rainfall is heaviest in December (70 mm) and lightest in August (1 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
