8 Days Southeast Turkey Tour: Adana, Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Mardin, Diyarbakir & Mt. Nemrut Private Tour

On arrival at Adana Airport your guide welcomes you and accompanies you to the hotel. The first taste of the region is a lunch of Adana's famous grilled kebabs. The afternoon is spent exploring the city: the Ulu Mosque, which blends Seljuk and Mamluk styles, and the Kazanlar bazaar with its local sweets and snacks. You then see the stone clock tower raised in 1882 during the Ottoman era, the vast Sabancı Central Mosque with its six minarets, the Church of St Paul and the Stone Bridge, a Roman structure with fourteen arches that is still in use today. Dinner and overnight in Adana.

After breakfast you take a final look at central Adana and the Seyhan Dam, then travel about 220 km east to Gaziantep. The highlight of the day is the Zeugma Mosaic Museum, one of the largest mosaic collections in the world, where Roman floors, wall paintings, fountains, statues and the famous Gypsy Girl mosaic rescued from ancient Zeugma are on display. A city walk follows through the Coppersmiths' Bazaar, the Almacı Bazaar and the Zincirli Bedesten, with time to sample local dishes, baklava and pistachios. Dinner and overnight in Gaziantep.

The morning starts at Zeugma near Belkıs village, a city founded by Seleucus I and later a Commagene and Roman stronghold on the Euphrates, much of it now under the Birecik Dam reservoir. In Halfeti, known for its stone houses and black roses, a boat trip reveals the flooded old town, the sunken minaret, Savaşan village and the Rumkale fortress. After lunch by the water you drive to Şanlıurfa for a tour of Balıklıgöl and Ayn-el Zeliha lakes, the Halil-ür Rahman and Mevlid-i Halil mosques, the cave associated with the birth of Prophet Abraham, the Archaeology Museum, the Haleplibahçe Museum and the old bazaars and caravanserais. Dinner with a traditional Sıra Gecesi music evening and overnight in Şanlıurfa.

Today is devoted to the dawn of civilisation. At Göbeklitepe, in the Taş Tepeler region, your guide explains how this monumental Neolithic sanctuary, about 12,000 years old and far older than Stonehenge, has reshaped ideas about the origins of settled life. In the afternoon you continue to Harran, inhabited since the 6th millennium BC, to see its distinctive conical mud-brick houses, the Harran mound and the ruins of the Umayyad-era mosque. Return to Şanlıurfa for dinner and a second night at the hotel.

An early start takes you about 250 km east. First stop is Dara, also called Anastasiopolis, a frontier city on the Silk Road whose rock-cut cisterns, water channels and tombs are still impressive. You then visit the Deyrulzafaran Monastery, seat of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate for centuries, with its church, baptistery and much older sun temple chamber. In Mardin you stroll through the terraced old town, visiting the Kasımiye Madrasah, the Grand Mosque and its minaret, the Şehidiye Madrasah and the historic PTT building, with free time for local soaps, almond sweets and handicrafts. Dinner and overnight in Mardin.

Leaving Mardin you head to Midyat, an old centre of the Tur Abdin region where Syriac masters still craft fine silver filigree in the stone-built neighbourhoods. On the road to Diyarbakır you stop at Zerzevan Castle, a Roman military settlement around 3,000 years old, where a hidden temple of Mithras recalls the secret rites of the Roman sun cult. After lunch in Diyarbakır you explore the massive city walls, the four-legged minaret, the Great Mosque with the sundial attributed to Al-Jazari, a tea break at the Hasan Pasha Inn, Sülüklü Han, the Kaleiçi bazaar and the Ten-Eyed Bridge. Dinner and overnight in Diyarbakır.

After an early breakfast you drive towards Mount Nemrut, crossing the Atatürk Dam lake with sweeping views. Along the way you visit the excavations at Arsameia, the Karakuş Tumulus built for the royal women of Commagene, and the Cendere Bridge, a mortarless Roman bridge dedicated by Emperor Septimius Severus. From the car park a steep walk of about 2 km leads to the summit, where the eastern and western terraces hold colossal statues of Zeus, Apollo, Heracles, King Antiochus I, eagles and lions around the royal tumulus. Bring sturdy shoes and warm layers. Afterwards you descend to Adıyaman for dinner and overnight.

Enjoy a relaxed breakfast at the hotel and some free time. Depending on your flight schedule, there may be time for a short visit to the ancient city of Perre. You are then transferred to Adıyaman Airport or Şanlıurfa GAP Airport for your onward flight via Istanbul, and the tour ends.