3-Day Mount Nemrut Sunrise Trek, Sanliurfa & Harran Tour from Cappadocia

Your guide meets you at your hotel in Cappadocia in the morning and the journey south-east to Kahta begins. Passing the city of Kayseri, you stop to visit Karatayhan, a 13th-century Seljuk caravanserai that once sheltered merchants travelling along the trade routes of Anatolia. The drive continues to Pinarbasi for a short tea break, then on to Tekir, where lunch is served. After lunch there is time to photograph the striking scenery of the Tekir Valley before the long but scenic drive across the Anti-Taurus region to Kahta. In the evening you check in to your hotel on the slopes of Mount Nemrut and prepare for an early start the next day. Dinner and overnight at Mount Nemrut.

A very early departure takes you up the mountain in darkness. You drive as far as the road permits, then trek and climb the last stretch on foot to reach the summit of Mount Nemrut in time for a breathtaking sunrise. As daylight spreads, the colossal statues and heads of kings and gods on the terraces emerge, and your guide tells the story of the Commagene Kingdom. You return to the hotel for breakfast, and on the way down visit the Roman bridge of Cendere near Arsameia and the Karakus Tumulus. Driving on towards Sanliurfa, you pass the Ataturk Dam, the largest dam in the Middle East. After checking in to your hotel in Sanliurfa and having lunch, you visit Abraham's Cave and the Pools of Sacred Carp that surround it, followed by free time in the oriental covered bazaar. Later you drive to Harran, a village of mud-brick beehive houses mentioned in the Book of Genesis, where Abraham is said to have spent years of his life, and explore the city walls, the ruins of one of the oldest Islamic universities and the castle before returning to the hotel. Dinner and overnight in Sanliurfa.

After breakfast you leave Sanliurfa and drive west to Birecik on the banks of the Euphrates, the last refuge of the northern bald ibis, known locally as kelaynak. These birds live only here in the wild in Turkey and their remaining population is very small, so the visit to the breeding station, where they are protected and raised, is a rare chance to see them up close. Lunch is served before the road climbs into the Taurus Mountains, with a short tea break along the way. In the evening you arrive back in Cappadocia and are dropped off at your hotel, bringing the tour to an end with memories of a sunrise above the clouds on Mount Nemrut and the ancient streets of Sanliurfa and Harran.