Sanlıurfa, pronounced, often simply known as Urfa or Al-Ruha, in ancient times Edessa, is a city with 561,465 inhabitants in south-eastern Turkey, and the capital of Sanlıurfa Province. It is a city with a primarily Arabic and Kurdish population. Urfa is situated on a plain about eighty kilometres east of the Euphrates River. Urfa's climate features extremely hot, dry summers and cool, moist winters.