English
RSS
Savaşan Village
This village is under water of Birecik Barrage. There are two different ways to go Savasan if you come from Gaziantep first you have to go to Yavuzeli district and than Rumkale. You can go to Savasan from Rumkale with
small boats. Rent a boat to Savasan is 15 usd if you want to continou to Halfeti you should pay 25 usd more. These prices are not per person it is per boat. It takes only 10 minutes to go Savasan or with old name Beresin. Second way to go there from Urfa but Savasan is 120 km to Urfa and 50 km to Gaziantep. You should first come to Halfeti and you can take a boat from there to Savasan.
While you are on the way you imprest from the view what you see. Village mosque under the water of Firat River you see only minaret of it. School of the village also under the water but you can’t see any part of the school. When you step in to village you feel like you are in ghost village. The houses which have nice stone works over looking to Firat River are emty today. Some of them have a few broken objects in it. Savaşan villagers left behind of them past years and moved to new built village which is halve hour far from the old village by walking. As far as I understood most of them are not happy because they don’t live by the river side any more, they left their gardens and memories there.
The boat which you have taken from Rumkale takes you from one side to other side of Firat and at the same time it takes you from one city to another. Rumkale is in Gaziantep but Savaşan belongs to Urfa. There are two small cafes by the river side in this ghost village. You can have here lunch and get some alcoholic beverage also but you should call them one day before. There is a fish they named as Sabut or Kara Kuyruk it is a bit fat. You can have this, but I want you to warn that they cook this as kebab they put a lot of spice in it. Owner of the café, told us that it is very enjoyable to eat lunch here when the river water upraises. But we also enjoyed drinking tea there.
The boats which come from Rumkale they usually don’t stop at Savasan they just show the village from water and go back. You should get off from the boat and walk in to the village to feel it, to understand it spirit of the village. In that case you will like Savasan much more. If you would like to rent a boat, the boat owner name is Ahmet Arslan phone 0342 644 72 04 or mobile 0539 454 29 61.
