City was known as Edessa in ancient times and was the center of Syrian Christianity. Sanliurfa is known, among other things, for a particular image of Christ - the Mandylion (a kind of acheiropoietos, an image of a figure created in a supernatural, miraculous way rather than by human hand), and for the theological school of Ephrem the Syrian - saint, preacher, poet and commentator on the Holy Scriptures.
