Mor Hananyo Monastery in Artuklu

You're standing at the Mor Hananyo Monastery, on a mound about three kilometres outside Mardin. Start with the walls. They glow a warm, yellowish colour, and that's where the nickname comes from: the Saffron Monastery. Legend says that during the rebuilding, the abbot bought saffron from a passing merchant and mixed it into the lime. A more down-to-earth theory is that saffron was simply grown around here.