Harran Beehive Houses

The beehive houses of Harran, near Şanlıurfa in south-eastern Turkey, are clusters of small rooms each roofed with a tall conical dome of brick and mud. The local name is kümbet. They are a well-known example of building a complete roof without timber in a region where wood was scarce.

Form and construction

Each unit is a cubical base topped by a conical dome. Walls are typically 50-60 cm (20-24 in) thick and domes 20-30 cm (8-12 in). Builders used stone, brick and mud; many modern houses reused bricks salvaged from Harran's ancient ruins. The domes are corbelled upward to a small opening at the top, which provides ventilation.

Climate

The thick walls and domes, together with the vent at the crown, keep the interiors comparatively comfortable during the extreme heat of the Harran plain in summer. Because the plaster is weak, the houses need repair every one to three years.

Age

Most of the present houses date from the early 20th century and none is thought to be older than the mid-19th century. The tradition is much older: earlier domed or circular buildings existed at Harran, and Assyrian reliefs of the 7th century BC show similar domed structures. Harran itself was founded around 2500-2000 BC.

Today

A count in 2002 recorded 2,760 beehive houses in the area, but only a few dozen remain in the old town. Most are now used as stores and barns; some were lived in until the 1980s. They have been under conservation since 1979, and the Harran ruins were placed on Turkey's tentative World Heritage list in 2000. Similar domed villages exist across the border in northern Syria.