Dara Antique City Mardin Turkey
Dara which is a border city between the Anatolian mountains and Mesopotamian vast plains is located in the 9 km. east of the Mardin-Nusaybin road (the historical silk-road) and 30 km. southeast of the Mardin city. This area is known as the Tur Abdin plateau on which limestone formation has dominance.
The circle of Mardin including Dara was exchanged very often between Rome and Parthian-Sassanids from the 1st century BC onwards, as a strategically important outpost. As the important Roman border town Nisibis (Nusaybin) was lost to the Sassanid in AD 363 and as another important city, Amida (Diyarbakır) has been sieged by the Sassanids in AD 502, the Eastern Roman Empire felt compelled to found new garrison cities at the Mesopotamian border in order to improve its border security.