Viranşehir

Viranşehir stands on the upper Mesopotamian plain at the site of ancient Tella, later called Constantina and Tell Mawzan. Among its remains is an octagonal Christian martyrion, built in late antiquity to honour a saint and once decorated with mosaics. The town was on a route between Urfa and the eastern cities of the Jazira, and passed through the hands of Roman, Byzantine and Islamic rulers.

Mongol and Timurid attacks devastated the district in the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. After Mamluk, Aq Qoyunlu and Safavid rule, the Ottomans incorporated it into their empire in the early sixteenth century. The name Viranşehir, meaning ruined city, recalls the destruction and the older remains amid which the later settlement stood. The surviving columns of the martyrion were a visible reminder of Tella's Christian past.