Hasankeyf

   Hasankeyf is an ancient city with a fortress on the Tigris River. It is situated between Diyarbakir and Cizre in Turkey. Hasankeyf's ruling family bore the title of melik, or king. The family was a descendant of the famous Saladin and was thus an Ayyubid successor state. The Sharafnama mentions this family as one of the five that without actually founding an independent state had at one time or another money coined and the khutba read in its name. In the late 1990s, Hasankeyf became an issue because the proposed Ilisu Dam (part of the gigantic Guneydogu Anadolu Projesi GAP project) sought to flood and destroy the city and its Kurdish relics.