14 Days Eastern Turkey: Adana, Mt. Nemrut, Mardin, Lake Van, Kars & Trabzon Private Tour

Your journey begins at Adana Airport, where an assistant guide welcomes you and escorts you to your hotel. Take the afternoon to rest and settle in, because the coming fortnight is packed with remarkable places. The programme links Southeast Anatolia, Eastern Turkey, the Mesopotamian plain and the Black Sea coast, and includes a number of sites on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Over dinner you can meet your fellow travellers and your guide, who will outline the route ahead, the driving distances and the sights waiting at each stop. You spend the night in Adana, a lively southern city famous for its kebab culture.

After breakfast you explore Adana. Highlights include the Clock Tower, the bustling Kazancılar Bazaar, the Ulu Mosque, the old Stone Bridge over the Seyhan River and the six-minaret Sabancı Central Mosque. Lunch gives you the chance to try the city's signature Adana kebab, before a drive of around two hours to Gaziantep. There you step into the Zeugma Mosaic Museum, one of the largest mosaic museums anywhere, and then browse the old covered market streets — the coppersmiths' lanes, the historic Zincirli Bedesten and the busy Almacı Bazaar. Leave room in your luggage for the city's celebrated baklava and pistachios. Dinner and overnight stay are in Gaziantep.

Leaving Gaziantep, you drive about 100 km to Halfeti, a riverside district known for its old stone houses and black roses. A boat trip on the Euphrates reservoir takes you past the partly submerged village of Savaşan, the Sunken Mosque, the Greek Castle and the Halfeti neck, with time for photographs and coffee on the water. After a lunch break on the road, you continue to Sanliurfa, the city of the prophets. Visit the Halil-ur Rahman and Rızvaniye mosques, Balıklıgöl, the pool linked by tradition with Abraham, and the lake of Ayn-el Zeliha. Browse the Bedesten and Gümrük Inn and see the Urfa Museum. Dinner is a traditional Sira Night with live music.

Today is for the earliest chapters of human history. After breakfast you drive to Göbeklitepe, in the Taş Tepeler region, the oldest known open-air temple on earth, raised some 12,000 years ago in the Neolithic age and a site that has reshaped archaeology. Your guide explains how its carved pillars changed the story of early communities. Afterwards you head for Harran, inhabited since the 6th millennium BC and once a capital of the Assyrians and the Umayyads. Walk among its conical-domed houses, the Harran Mound and the ancient city remains, and see the mosque linked with the Umayyad caliph Marwan. Return to Sanliurfa for a second evening of Sira Night hospitality.

This day brings what many travellers consider the most unusual landmark of the entire tour. Setting out after breakfast, you travel via Kahta towards Mt. Nemrut. On the way you stop at Arsameia, the summer capital of the Commagene kings, the Karakuş Tumulus built for royal women of the dynasty and the Roman Cendere Bridge. The final stretch to the summit is covered by minibus, since larger vehicles cannot use the road. Walk up to the eastern terrace to meet the colossal statues of Zeus, Apollo, Heracles, Antiochos I, Commagene, the eagle and the lion, then continue to the tumulus of King Antiochos and the western terrace. Afterwards you descend to Adiyaman for dinner and the night.

After breakfast you cross the Atatürk Dam over the Nissip Bridge and reach Diyarbakir after about three hours. Visit the Great Mosque, one of Anatolia's earliest mosques, and the UNESCO-listed city walls, then take a coffee and shopping break at Sülüklü Inn. See the Sheikh Muhattar Mosque with its four-legged minaret and the mosques linked to companions of the Prophet. After lunch in Batman, you see the El Rızk Mosque, the minarets of the Süleyman Pasha Mosque and Zeynel Bey's tomb, monuments moved to new Hasankeyf. In Midyat admire filigree silverwork and the Syriac quarters, then visit Mor Gabriel Monastery and the White Water area near Nusaybin. The ancient city of Dara, with cave tombs, houses and a vast cistern, precedes your arrival in Mardin.

Today you experience Mardin at an unhurried, local pace. After breakfast visit Deyrul Zafaran Monastery, for more than a thousand years the seat of a patriarchate, and see its ancient sun temple, church and baptistery. Then walk through Old Mardin, where Muslim, Syriac, Turkish and Arab influences blend in stone. The route includes the Kasımiye Madrasah, the Ulu Mosque and its minaret, the Şehidiye Madrasa and the old PTT House. In your free time, browse the bazaar lanes for natural soaps, nuts, almonds, almond sweets, dried fruits, rosaries and handmade souvenirs. Dinner and the night are again in Mardin, with its terraces looking out over the plain of Mesopotamia.

A long and scenic drive of roughly 530 km lies ahead as you travel from Mardin to Van. Along the road you pause in the centre of Bitlis for a short city tour, then continue to Tatvan on the shore of Lake Van. After a lunch break, you go on to Ahlat, about 45 km further. Its Seljuk cemetery, established around 1200, is regarded as the largest Turkish-Islamic burial ground in the world and holds 8,169 tombstones, some as long as 3.5 metres and richly carved with inscriptions and decoration. You also see the Grand Vault and the Emir Bayındır Mosque before arriving in Van for dinner and your overnight stay.

The Van provincial tour starts at Van Castle, also called Tuspa, built about 2,800 years ago by the Urartian king Sarduri and later the capital of the Urartian kingdom. Explore its rock-cut royal tombs beside the lake, then continue to the Van Archaeology and Ethnography Museum. In the Edremit district you board a boat from the pier for the short crossing to Akdamar Island, where the carved reliefs of the restored Akdamar Church stand against the blue water and the mountains. Enjoy the views and photo opportunities before heading back to the city centre. Dinner and accommodation are in Van.

Leaving Van after breakfast, drive about 90 km to the Muradiye Waterfall for photographs, then cross the landscape beneath Mount Tendürek to Doğubeyazıt. After a short lunch stop, you tour Ishak Pasha Palace, a 116-room complex said to have taken 99 years to build, set against the slopes of Mount Ararat. The road continues through Iğdır to Kars. Once at your hotel, stroll the streets of the city and notice the Russian-era architecture that blends with its eastern character. Look out for regional specialities such as Kars honey, Kars cheeses and goose dishes. Dinner and overnight stay are in Kars.

The morning belongs to Ani, the ruined medieval city on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Walk among the Manuçehr Mosque, Ani Cathedral, the Virgins Monastery and the Church of the Apostles, remnants of a once-great capital on the Silk Road. After this visit you travel through Sarıkamış and on to Erzurum, where a lunch break features local specialities such as Çağ Kebab and stuffed kadayıf. Your afternoon tour takes in the Nene Hatun Bastion, the Double Minaret Madrasa, the Ulu Mosque, the Üç Kumbetler tombs, the Yakutiye Madrasa and the Erzurum Congress and National Struggle Museum. Dinner and accommodation are in Erzurum.

Today's drive of around 320 km, about six hours, leads you from the Anatolian plateau down towards the Black Sea. You pass Aşkale and Bayburt and stop in Gümüşhane for lunch. There you visit Karaca Cave, discovered in 1983 and filled with colourful stalactites, stalagmites and dripstone columns in shades of red, blue, purple, green and yellow. Continue to Sumela Monastery, a Greek Orthodox complex clinging to a steep slope some 300 metres above the valley. Construction began in the 13th century and it remained in use until 1923. Once in Trabzon you start with a first impression of the city, famous for its handwoven gold and silver telkari jewellery. Overnight stay is in Trabzon.

A full day on the Black Sea coast begins with the Trabzon city tour. Visit the Hagia Sophia Church, a fine example of Byzantine church architecture, then the Atatürk Mansion, and enjoy the panorama of the city and sea from Boztepe. Trabzon is known for its handmade telkari and kazaziye gold and silver jewellery, which makes a distinctive souvenir. Afterwards you drive into the green hills to Uzungöl, one of the best-known scenic spots of the region, where you have free time to enjoy the lake and forested surroundings. Dinner is included and you spend a second night in Trabzon.

After a final breakfast at your hotel, you are transferred to Trabzon Airport for your onward flight, with a connection via Istanbul. The journey from Adana to the Black Sea has crossed Mesopotamia, the highlands around Lake Van and the old Silk Road routes, so you leave with a deep impression of Eastern Turkey. Check out in good time, as the transfer time follows your flight schedule, and keep your travel documents handy. Your guide will say farewell and wish you a safe journey home, hoping to welcome you back on another Turkish adventure.