Eastern Turkey: Gaziantep, Göbekli Tepe, Mardin and Lake Van

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Gaziantep

   Gaziantep airport (GZT) to your hotel in the old centre

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Repas du soir
   • Nuit : Gaziantep
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Gaziantep's Oğuzeli Airport (GZT), about 20 km from the city; there are direct flights from Istanbul, and we can book yours at cost. A driver meets you in arrivals for the half-hour transfer to a central hotel near the old bazaars. Aim to land by about 4 pm to make the evening briefing; the exact latest arrival is confirmed with your final itinerary. If you arrive early, the coppersmiths' bazaar and the old caravanserais are a short walk away. In the evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group to walk through the days ahead: the drives, the dress code, how the safety advice is handled and what each city is known for at the table. Then we sit down to a welcome dinner in a local restaurant, a first taste of the city UNESCO named a Creative City of Gastronomy in 2015: grilled kebabs, pistachio everything and, inevitably, baklava.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Gaziantep Airport (GZT)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Temps libre : Free until the evening briefing

2. Jour 2 : Gaziantep: mosaics and baklava

   Zeugma Mosaic Museum, the old bazaars and a baklava workshop

   • Environ 15 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Gaziantep
   Détail du jour 2

   We are at the Zeugma Mosaic Museum when it opens, before the school groups. The floors come from the villas of Zeugma, a Roman town on the Euphrates partly flooded by the Birecik Dam in 2000, and the museum lays them out room by room, with columns and wall paintings set back in place. The Gypsy Girl, the most famous face in Turkish archaeology, has a dark room of her own. Back in the old town we walk the coppersmiths' bazaar and the restored hans, and see Gaziantep Castle as far as the post-earthquake repairs allow. Lunch is a Gaziantep classic: beyran soup or ali nazik, smoked aubergine with yogurt and lamb. In the afternoon a baklava master shows how the dough is stretched paper-thin and layered with Antep pistachios, which carry a protected EU name, and we taste it warm from the tray. The evening is free.

   Compris

   • Zeugma Mosaic Museum at opening
   • Guided walk through the coppersmiths' bazaar and the old hans
   • Gaziantep Castle from outside, or inside if open
   • Sit-down lunch
   • Baklava workshop and tasting

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : About 3 hours on foot, mostly flat. Museum closing days are confirmed per departure.

   

3. Jour 3 : The Euphrates at Halfeti, on to Şanlıurfa

   Gaziantep to Halfeti, then Şanlıurfa

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Şanlıurfa
   Détail du jour 3

   We leave Gaziantep at about 8.30 for Halfeti, about an hour and a half away, a small town on the Euphrates that lost its lower streets to the Birecik Dam reservoir in 2000 and now belongs to the Cittaslow network. A private boat takes us upriver between limestone cliffs, past the minaret of the half-drowned village of Savaşan, to the foot of Rumkale, a fortress on a rock above the river. Lunch is fish and mezze by the water in Halfeti. In the afternoon we drive about an hour and a half to Şanlıurfa, check in, and walk at dusk to Balıklıgöl, the pools of sacred carp where tradition says Abraham was thrown into Nimrod's fire and the flames turned to water and the logs to fish. The arcades of the Halil-ür Rahman Mosque reflect in the water as the lights come on. The rest of the evening is yours.

   Compris

   • Private boat on the Euphrates at Halfeti, past Savaşan to Rumkale
   • Sit-down lunch by the river
   • Dusk walk to Balıklıgöl, the fish pools

   Option plus facile : Stay on the boat or by the landing at Rumkale.

   Option plus active : Climb the steep path up to the Rumkale fortress walls while the boat waits, if the site is open.

   Temps libre : Evening free

   

4. Jour 4 : Göbekli Tepe and Harran

   Şanlıurfa to Göbekli Tepe, back to the museum, then Harran

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Şanlıurfa
   Détail du jour 4

   The trip's one early start: we leave at 7.30 for Göbekli Tepe's opening, when it is quietest. The site is about 20 minutes from town: circles of carved T-shaped pillars, some over 5 m tall, raised about 11,600 years ago by people who had not yet started farming, and listed by UNESCO in 2018. Foxes, boars, vultures and scorpions are cut into the stone, and a roofed walkway lets you look down into the enclosures. Back in Şanlıurfa we go to the Archaeology Museum for the Urfa Man, a life-size statue about as old as the pillars, and, a short drive away, the Haleplibahçe mosaics. After a sit-down lunch the middle of the day is free in the hotel's shade. In the late afternoon we drive about 45 minutes south to Harran, where families still keep the conical mud-brick beehive houses, and walk to the ruined square minaret of the old Great Mosque as the light turns gold.

   Compris

   • Göbekli Tepe at opening with your guide
   • Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum, then the Haleplibahçe Mosaic Museum a short drive away
   • Sit-down lunch
   • Harran: the beehive houses, the Great Mosque ruins and the citadel from outside

   Activités en option

   • A sıra gecesi evening of music, food and conversation in a traditional Urfa house (price shown at booking)

   Option plus facile : Skip Harran and rest in Şanlıurfa, or walk the covered bazaar near Balıklıgöl at your own pace.

   Option plus active : Climb the steps to Şanlıurfa Castle above the fish pools before lunch for the view over the old town.

   Temps libre : Midday free; evening free

   Activité : About 3 hours on foot, on walkways and uneven ground at Harran. Bring a hat: there is little shade at either site.

5. Jour 5 : Across the plain to Mardin

   Şanlıurfa to Mardin

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Mardin
   Détail du jour 5

   A relaxed start, then about two and a half hours east across the flat Harran plain, green with spring wheat or, in autumn, white with cotton, to Mardin. The old town hangs on a south-facing slope below its citadel, its honey-coloured stone houses stacked so tightly that one family's roof is the next family's terrace, looking out over the Mesopotamian plain towards Syria. We arrive for lunch in the old town, then walk with a local guide: the Zinciriye Medrese of 1385, with its courtyard and fluted dome; the Great Mosque and its minaret; the covered bazaar of saddlers and coppersmiths; and the Syriac churches of a city that has been Christian, Muslim, Arab, Kurdish and Turkish at once for centuries. Mardin is on UNESCO's tentative list. We finish on a terrace as the sun goes down over the plain, and the evening is free to find dinner, or a glass of local Syriac wine.

   Compris

   • Sit-down lunch in Mardin's old town
   • Guided walk with a local guide: Zinciriye Medrese, the Great Mosque, the bazaar and a Syriac church
   • Sunset over the Mesopotamian plain from a terrace

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : Mardin is steep: stone steps and sloping lanes everywhere. The van can drop you at the main street to save the climb.

   

6. Jour 6 : Dara and the saffron monastery

   Mardin to Dara, then Deyrulzafaran Monastery and back

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Mardin
   Détail du jour 6

   We drive about 30 km south-east in the cool of the morning to Dara, a frontier city the emperor Anastasius built around AD 505 against the Persians. A village now sits among its ruins, and the walk takes in the great underground cisterns, the water channels and a necropolis of rock-cut tombs, where steps lead down into chambers carved from the hillside. On the way back we stop at Deyrulzafaran, the Monastery of Saint Ananias, about 6 km east of Mardin, seat of the Syriac Orthodox patriarchs from the 12th century until 1932. Monks and students still live there, Aramaic liturgy is still sung, and the stone has a saffron tint that gives the monastery its name. We are back in Mardin for a late lunch on a terrace. The afternoon is free: the Kasımiye Medrese just below town is worth the short taxi ride, or rest before dinner.

   Compris

   • Dara: the cisterns, water channels and rock-cut necropolis
   • Deyrulzafaran Monastery
   • Sit-down lunch in Mardin

   Option plus facile : Stay above ground at Dara and see the cisterns from the entrance, or spend the morning in Mardin and join for the monastery.

   Option plus active : Walk the full necropolis trail at Dara with the local guide.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

   Activité : Dara has uneven ground and steps down into the tombs and cisterns. Covered shoulders and knees at the monastery.

7. Jour 7 : Diyarbakır and the Tigris

   Mardin to Diyarbakır

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Diyarbakır
   Détail du jour 7

   About an hour and a half north, down off the Mardin hills, to Diyarbakır, the largest Kurdish city in Turkey, on a bluff above the Tigris. Its walls of black basalt run for about 5.5 km around the old city, and together with the Hevsel Gardens between the walls and the river they were listed by UNESCO in 2015. We walk a stretch of the ramparts for the view down over the gardens, then drive the short way to the Ten-Eyed Bridge, the Dicle Bridge, built in 1065 with its ten arches across the Tigris. Lunch is a local favourite, liver kebab. In the afternoon we walk the old city of Sur: the Great Mosque, one of the oldest in Anatolia, its courtyard reusing Roman columns; the 16th-century Hasan Pasha Han; and a dengbêj house where Kurdish singers keep their oral stories alive. Parts of Sur were rebuilt after fighting in 2015 and 2016; your guide explains the city as it is.

   Compris

   • Diyarbakır city walls and the view over the Hevsel Gardens
   • The Ten-Eyed (Dicle) Bridge over the Tigris
   • Great Mosque, Hasan Pasha Han and a dengbêj house in Sur
   • Sit-down lunch

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : About 3 hours on foot, with steps up to the walls.

8. Jour 8 : East to Lake Van

   Diyarbakır to the Malabadi Bridge, Bitlis and Tatvan, then the south shore of Lake Van to Van

   • Environ 5.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Van
   Détail du jour 8

   This is the one long day, about 400 km and five and a half hours of driving, and it is over our usual four-hour cap for a reason: there is no direct flight from Diyarbakır to Van, and flying through Istanbul takes as long and loses the road. So we make the road the day. We leave at about 8 and stop after an hour and a half at the Malabadi Bridge, an Artuqid arch of 1147 over the Batman River, once one of the widest stone spans in the world. The road climbs into the mountains to Bitlis, an old stone town in a gorge, for a sit-down lunch and a walk to stretch the legs. From Tatvan we follow the south shore of Lake Van, the largest lake in Turkey, at about 1,640 m, its soda water an improbable blue against bare mountains, with tea stops on the way. We reach Van in the late afternoon.

   Compris

   • Malabadi Bridge
   • Sit-down lunch and a short walk in Bitlis
   • Scenic stops on the south shore of Lake Van

   Option plus facile : See the Malabadi Bridge from the roadside viewpoint instead of walking down to it.

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : Driving broken into stints of no more than about 1.5 hours, with a sit-down lunch.

9. Jour 9 : Van breakfast, Akdamar and Van Fortress

   Van to Gevaş and Akdamar Island by boat, then Van Fortress

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Van
   Détail du jour 9

   Breakfast today is in town, not at the hotel: Van is famous across Turkey for it, and the long breakfast streets fill from early morning. Dozens of small plates arrive: otlu peynir, cheese cured with wild herbs; murtuğa, flour fried in butter with egg; kavut; clotted cream with honey; olives, eggs and fresh bread. Then we drive about 45 minutes along the shore to the pier at Gevaş for the short boat crossing to Akdamar Island. The Armenian Church of the Holy Cross was built there between 915 and 921, and its walls carry a band of carved figures: Adam and Eve, Jonah and the whale, David and Goliath, with vines and animals running round the stone. We are back in Van by early afternoon, and the time is yours until late afternoon, when we climb Van Fortress, the rock of Tushpa, capital of the Urartian kingdom almost 3,000 years ago, for the sunset over the lake. Farewell dinner follows.

   Compris

   • Traditional Van breakfast in town
   • Boat to Akdamar Island and the Church of the Holy Cross
   • Van Fortress (Tushpa) at sunset
   • Farewell dinner

   Option plus facile : Watch the sunset from the foot of the fortress rock instead of climbing it.

   Option plus active : Walk the full length of the fortress rock to the Urartian rock-cut tombs on its lake side.

   Temps libre : Early afternoon free

   Activité : The fortress climb is steep and uneven, about 30 to 45 minutes up. Bring a warm layer: Van is at about 1,700 m and evenings are cool.

   

10. Jour 10 : Depart from Van

    Van to Van Ferit Melen Airport (VAN)

    • Environ 15 min de route
    • Petit-déjeuner
    Détail du jour 10

    A slow last morning in Van. After breakfast, if your flight is in the afternoon, your guide can take you to the Van Cat House at the university, where the famous white Van cats, many with one blue and one amber eye, are bred and looked after; or walk the shopping streets for herb cheese and dried fruit to take home. Van's Ferit Melen Airport (VAN) is about 6 km from the centre, so the transfer is short, and there are direct flights to Istanbul and Ankara for your connection home. We drop the group at the airport together for the day's main flight, or at the time of your own flight if it differs; your guide checks every flight before saying goodbye. If you have time and want more of Turkey, the western classic, Istanbul, Cappadocia and Ephesus, runs as its own trip.

    Compris

    • Drop-off at Van Ferit Melen Airport (VAN)

    Activités en option

    • Van Cat House at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, if your flight allows

    Temps libre : Morning free

    Activité : Book a flight out of Van leaving after about 1 pm to have the morning; any time works for the transfer.

Faune et météo : April to June brings green hills and warm days in the south and cool, fresh air at Van, where the lake's pearl mullet run upriver in spring. September and October are warm and dry. July and August pass 40 C on the plain, and Van is snowbound in winter.

• Gaziantep2 nuits
• Şanlıurfa2 nuits
• Mardin2 nuits
• Diyarbakır1 nuit
• Van2 nuits