The Wheat Trail Mesopotamia

Arrival in Diyarbakır; after completing border formalities, transfer by coach to the hotel. Check-in, dinner and overnight in Diyarbakır.

Midyat, Mor Gabriel Monastery, the Great Mosque (Ulu Camii) of Mardin, Kasımiye Madrasa. Dinner and overnight in Mardin.
After breakfast, departure for Midyat. In Midyat we explore the old part of town and the historic Konuk Evi building, the highest point of the town. We then continue to the Mor Gabriel Monastery (Monastery of St Gabriel), the oldest surviving and one of the most beautiful Assyrian Orthodox monasteries, dating from the 4th century, with fantastic Eastern architecture.
After the visit, we continue to Mardin. Mardin is, among other things, a city distinctive for its appearance and location. It sits on one side of a hill where the houses are arranged in terraces, and their rooftops offer views over the endless plains of ancient Mesopotamia, i.e. the valleys of the Euphrates and the Tigris, two rivers of great importance to civilisation. Mardin played an important role in the development of Christianity and was the centre of the Syriac Orthodox Church. Its population is made up of Arabs, Kurds, Syriacs and Turks, and several languages are spoken: Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish. From a religious perspective, it is a place where two faiths coexist, as both Muslims and Christians live in Mardin, and many cultures have passed through the city. Each of them left behind many masterpieces. Return to the hotel. Dinner. Overnight.

After breakfast, check-out from the hotel. We start the day with a tour of Mardin’s old town and a visit to the Deyrulzafaran Monastery (the Saffron Monastery), one of the most important Orthodox monasteries in south-eastern Turkey, dating from the 5th century. Drive to Şanlıurfa. Dinner. Overnight.

Breakfast. Drive to the archaeological site of Göbekli Tepe (Turkish for “Potbelly Hill”). The discovery of Göbekli Tepe, a site inscribed by UNESCO on the World Heritage List, has called into question what was previously known about prehistoric times. Return to Şanlıurfa.
We set off on a tour of the city, whose streets, houses, bazaars, baths, fountains, bridges, mosques, castles and city walls make it feel like an “open-air museum”. It was also called the “City of Prophets”, because various prophets such as Abraham, Jacob, Job and Elisha lived here. We will visit the museum where we can see the oldest statue in the world, and then head to the Haleplibahçe Museum, which houses remains from the Roman period. Finally, we will visit the cave where the Prophet Abraham was born, and Balıklıgöl, the place where the king threw him into the fire. Arrival at the hotel and dinner. Overnight.

Drive to Harran (today under UNESCO protection) and a walk through the remains of the oldest university in the region and the biblical city. Harran is known for its beehive-like houses, built in a circular shape from unfired brick, without the use of wood, and with vaulted roofs.
Departure for Adıyaman. The drive takes us through the landscapes along the Euphrates, where the first hydroelectric power plant, “Atatürk”, was built in 1977. We continue to the town of Kahta, where we will visit the exceptionally well-preserved arched stone bridge of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus.
After the visit, we continue to the starting point for the ascent of Nemrut. Mount Nemrut is a 2,134-metre-high mountain, best known for the archaeological remains of a large number of sculptures near its summit, believed to be the remains of the royal tomb of Antiochus I of Commagene from the 1st century BC. At the summit we will watch the sunset and walk around the site. At the crossroads of Eastern and Western civilisations, Mount Nemrut is surely one of the most magnificent sites. After the visit to Nemrut, arrival in Adıyaman. Hotel check-in, dinner, overnight.

Breakfast. Departure for Gaziantep, driving past endless pistachio plantations. North-east of Gaziantep, on the Euphrates, lies the village of Eski Halfeti. It has since served as a backdrop for popular Turkish TV series. We will sail through the beautiful river gorge, and during the boat trip we will see numerous half-submerged houses, trees, mosques and cultural monuments. On one of the peaks we will also see the remains of the Roman fortress (Rumkale), and further on the sunken village of Savaşan Köyü with the famous half-submerged minaret of the Batık Mosque. Not far from Halfeti, on a limestone cliff by the Euphrates, nests an endemic bird species, the northern bald ibis – a species of ibis on the brink of extinction. We continue to the Zeugma Mosaic Museum, the largest museum of its kind in the world. Our journey continues to Gaziantep, the capital of culinary arts and city of gastronomy, which its inhabitants simply call Antep. If you ask Turks about Gaziantep, they will all immediately start talking about baklava. Thanks to its varied and delicious cuisine, UNESCO added Antep to its list of Creative Cities of the world in 2015. When it comes to food, Turkey’s baklava capital has fully lived up to this status: by a rough estimate, about every fifth shop in the city centre is a baklava shop (there are more than 180 of them), and it is a small miracle that they all survive. Hotel check-in, dinner, overnight.

After breakfast, hotel check-out and departure for Adana.
Located in the heart of the Çukurova plain, Adana, Turkey’s fourth-largest city, has a history going back as far as the 7th millennium BC. The many civilisations that occupied and ruled the land left behind layers of archaeological treasures, traces of the region’s complex past. While history lovers can enjoy exploring the ruins of ancient cities, nature lovers can relax breathing the cool, clean air on the slopes and plateaus of the Taurus Mountains.
Sightseeing tour of Adana. Dinner and overnight.

Transfer to the airport and flight from Adana.