The Dicle Bridge (; ) is a historic bridge in

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, it is ...

over the river

Tigris The Tigris ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the eastern of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian Desert, Syrian and Arabia ...

() in southeastern

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Completed in 1065, it numbers ten arches with a total length of . Hence, it is locally called also "On Gözlü Köprü" / "Pira Dehderî" (literally: Ten Eyes Bridge). Its another name is the Silvan Bridge due to its position being on the road to Silvan. The bridge was commissioned by Nizam al-Din and Muyyid al-Dawla during the Kurdish dynasty, Marwanids era (990–1085) in Diyarbakır, and was built by architect Yusuf son of Ubeyd son of Sandjar in 1065, as stated in two lines of

Kufic The Kufic script () is a style of Arabic script, that gained prominence early on as a preferred script for Quran transcription and architectural decoration, and it has since become a reference and an archetype for a number of other Arabic scripts ...

script in the inscription mounted on the southern facade of the bridge. The bridge is situated south of the city, outside of Mardinkapı/Deriyê Mêrdînê (literally:

Mardin Mardin (; ; romanized: ''Mārdīn''; ; ) is a city and seat of the Artuklu District of Mardin Province in Turkey. It is known for the Artuqids, Artuqid architecture of its old city, and for its strategic location on a rocky hill near the Tigris ...

Gate). Its location is the nearest to the city considered the bends and the course of the river as well as the rate of water flow. Built with black volcanic stones, the bridge is long and wide, varying at some places on it. Longest span of the ten arches measures . Due to its historic characteristic, motorized traffic over the bridge suspended after the construction of the Marwanids Bridge (; ), or as initially named Bağıvar Bridge, in November 2009. The new bridge was built about south of Dicle Bridge, far enough not to spoil the landscape view of the old bridge.

References

Buildings and structures completed in 1065 Bridges completed in the 11th century Road bridges in Turkey Deck arch bridges Bridges in Diyarbakır Bridges over the Tigris River Stone bridges in Turkey Pedestrian bridges in Turkey Kurdish culture Arch bridges in Turkey {{Turkey-bridge-struct-stub