The story of Cizre Castle

Two thirds of this castle's walls have vanished completely, and some of the remaining stones were pulled out and used to build houses. Cizre Castle stands on the banks of the Tigris in Cizre, in Turkey's Şırnak province, and today it lies in ruins. The structure was made up of two parts, an inner and an outer one.

Take a close look at the surviving southern section: because some of the stones on its outer face were removed, the walls no longer form a continuous whole. In a sense, parts of the castle now live on scattered among the town's homes. It also had a long military life, being used by the Border Battalion Command until 2010. In 2012 a restoration project was carried out.

Stand on the riverbank among the ruins and picture how this two-part fortress once watched over the Tigris.