Gaziantep

South-east Türkiye's largest city pulses with a distinct energy — part Ottoman trading hub, part ancient Hellenistic settlement, and entirely defined by its food. Gaziantep draws visitors for its culinary traditions and its archaeology, but stays with them for the texture of a city that has been continuously inhabited for millennia.

The Old City and its Crafts

The historic core clusters around a 13th-century stone castle that has watched over generations of traders and craftspeople. Below its walls, narrow lanes lead through a covered bazaar where copper pots hang in doorways and the sound of metalworking echoes from small workshops. Gaziantep's artisans have hammered and engraved copper here for centuries, producing the distinctive pots and trays that feature in local cooking and are carried home as souvenirs. The old quarter retains a scale and intimacy that rewards wandering — turning a corner reveals a quiet courtyard, a tea house with older men playing backgammon, or a display of hand-rolled lokum dusted with cream-coloured pistachios.

Mosaics and Ancient Sites

The Zeugma Mosaic Museum holds one of the world's most significant collections of Roman floor mosaics, many rescued from the ancient city of Zeugma upstream on the Euphrates. Frescoed rooms depict mythological scenes — Poseidon in his chariot, the seasons personified — their colours preserved across two thousand years. Zeugma itself, now partly submerged, was founded by a Macedonian general and later became a Roman colony, its blend of Greek and Roman culture visible in the fragments that remain. The museum's scale is striking: rooms of tessellated stone stretch across an entire city block, placing visitors among floors that once lay beneath grand private villas.

A City Built on Pistachios

Gaziantep's kitchen is unlike anywhere else in Türkiye. The region produces the country's finest pistachios — a small, intensely flavoured nut that appears in everything from morning pastries to evening kebabs. Baklava here is made with Gaziantep pistachios rather than the walnuts found elsewhere, giving it a subtler, sweeter character. The city's grilled meat dishes — including the stuffed flatbreads called lahmacun and the lamb-and-pistachio pilaf called kaburga — reflect a culinary tradition shaped by the surrounding steppe and the ancient trade routes that once passed through. Food is eaten slowly here, shared across long tables, accompanied by glasses of şıra, a slightly fermented grape drink.