7-Day Southeastern Turkey Tour: Mardin, Sanliurfa & Mount Nemrut

Highlights of the 7-Day Southeastern Turkey Tour

This week-long journey crosses the ancient heartland of southeastern Turkiye, from the black basalt walls of Diyarbakir to the honey-coloured terraces of Mardin, the sacred pools of Sanliurfa and the god-kings' heads on the summit of Mount Nemrut. Arranged in-house by Inca Tour, a TURSAB-licensed operator, it follows the upper Tigris and Euphrates through a region layered with Mesopotamian, Roman, Commagene, Syriac and Islamic history, ending amid the famous cuisine of Gaziantep and the classical cities of the Cilician plain.

The route opens in Diyarbakir, whose UNESCO-listed city walls are among the longest in the world, before climbing to the hilltop old town of Mardin with its carved stone houses, the Kasimiye Madrasa and the fifth-century Deyrulzafaran Monastery, one of the oldest Syriac Orthodox monasteries on earth. From there you descend to Sanliurfa (Urfa), traditionally honoured as the birthplace of the Prophet Abraham, where the carp-filled Balikligol (Pool of Abraham), Ainzelha lake and the great covered bazaar fill a full day.

The journey's centrepiece is a sunset on Mount Nemrut, where the colossal statues of the Commagene kingdom crown a 2,150-metre peak above Kahta. Beyond it lies Gaziantep, a city of pistachio and baklava whose Archaeological and Zeugma Mosaic Museum guards some of the world's finest Roman mosaics, and finally Adana with its Sabanci Central Mosque and clock tower, and ancient Tarsus, birthplace of Saint Paul, where Cleopatra's Gate and the Cave of the Seven Sleepers close the tour.

This is a tour for travellers drawn to deep history and living culture rather than beaches and resorts. You cross the fertile crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates, sleep in Diyarbakir, Sanliurfa, Kahta, Gaziantep and the Adana plain, and travel with a professional English-speaking guide who brings to life the Syriac monks of the Deyrulzafaran Monastery, the legends of Abraham at Balikligol, and the mountain tomb-sanctuary of King Antiochos on Mount Nemrut. All breakfasts, five dinners, airport transfers and entrance fees are included, leaving you free to focus on one of the richest historical landscapes anywhere in Turkiye.