THE BLACK ROSE OF HALFETI.. Saved from Daily Sabah > Life > Feature Fed by the waters of the Euphrates, black roses, an extremely rare flower grown in the village of Halfeti near the historical Urfa province, presents a unique natural beauty. The flower growing in that region requires a certain pH level, and even though it blooms red, it turns to black as the summer season progresses. The black rose of Halfeti, a village near Urfa, is an extremely rare and oddly beautiful flower. When it first blossoms, this rose is dark red; this dark shade of scarlet "fades" – sorry, I am not sure what the opposite of fade is, so I am sticking with fade – to black as the summer progresses. This flower used to thrive in the town of Old Halfeti. Old Halfeti was a town located on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, 120 kilometers from Urfa. In 2000, just over 2,500 people lived in this town, in which the first settlement has been dated to 855 B.C. The Byzantines called this town Romaion Koula (Roman Castle), and the Arab conquerors translated the name, calling it Qal'at Rum. The town came under Ottoman rule during the reign of Selim I. But with the introduction of the GAP project – the Southeastern Anatolia Project – the Birecik Dam was built in the 1990s, and the area was filled with water in April 2000. Old Halfet is now submerged under water. The residents of the Old Halfeti village were relocated to the "new" Halfeti village, at a distance of approximately 10 kilometers. The residents took their roses with them when they moved. owever, the rose, also known as the Arab Bride or Arab Beauty, did not thrive in its new location. The soil in Old Halfeti had been fed by the waters of the Euphrates, and had a unique pH level. The soil in New Halfeti was different, despite the small distance, and the flowers struggled. District officials intervened, collected the seeds and planted them in greenhouses that were close to their original location, in an attempt to imitate the origi...