In the past, the state used to collect taxes from trade caravans at inns (han) where they accommodated. At that period, the inns used to serve as hotelswhere merchants accommodated, and fed and rested their animals.Şanlıurfa is a city which has beenon the important trade routes since around 2,000 BC, which is why it has many inns. One of these inns isthe Gümrük Inn which was built by Behram Pasha in 1562, at the age of the Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent.With its garden, serving a home to hundred-year old plane trees and a channel through which water from Balıklı Lake passes, it is one of the 11 remaining inns from the Ottoman period. A cup of bitter coffee (mırra) or ceylon/smuggled tea (kaçak çay)to be enjoyed at the Gümrük Inn is an essential of your Urfa trip.
