5 Nights / 6 Days
Eastern Anatolia & Ancient Kingdoms
5 Nights | 3 Mardin · 1 Van · 1 Kars — honey-colored limestone, Akdamar Island and the haunting ruins of Ani.
Turkey / City
Mardin
A ancient hilltop city where limestone buildings glow amber at sunset and minarets rise alongside Syriac Christian monasteries in one of Türkiye's most culturally layered landscapes.
Also part of The Monasteries of Tur AbdinUpper Mesopotamia
From the plains below, Mardin appears as a mirage of honey-colored stone rising from the Mesopotamian steppe. The city sits on a long ridge where Upper Mesopotamia meets the Taurus foothills, its winding streets climbing past centuries of intersecting civilizations. The light here is particular — low and golden, especially in the late afternoon, catching the carved facades of merchant houses and making the whole city seem lit from within.
A City of Many Faiths
Mardin has long sheltered diverse communities. The historic old city holds a Syriac Orthodox church, Armenian churches, and mosques built close together on the same hillside. At the city's edge, Deyrulzaferan Monastery — still active — occupies a site that was once a pagan temple, then a Roman villa, before becoming one of the oldest Syriac monasteries in continuous use. The Yazidi community, too, has maintained a presence here, adding another thread to the city's complex social fabric. Walking the old quarter, you move between these spaces within a matter of streets.
Architecture Carved from Stone
The building material defines Mardin visually. Local limestone, soft enough to carve, gave rise to elaborate facades with geometric patterns, recessed windows, and projecting balconies called muqarnas — intricate corbelled details that shade the interiors from the summer heat. The Great Mosque, built by the Artuqids in the 12th century, anchors the city's religious architecture. Its minaret, like many in Mardin, is a local variation, taller and more slender than those found elsewhere in Türkiye.
The View and the Vantage Points
Several teahouses occupy the old city's upper terraces, offering views north over the plains toward the Tigris River valley. From here, on clear days, you can see across flat agricultural land that has been cultivated for millennia. The city itself, descending in tiers of stone, has a verticality unusual in southeastern Türkiye, with streets that switchback steeply and arched passages connecting one neighborhood level to another.
Local Crafts and Market Life
The covered bazaar remains a functioning market, with copper-smiths still working in traditional workshops, shaping and engraving vessels that have been produced here for generations. textiles and spices occupy adjacent sections. The crafts are practical as much as decorative — Mardin has always been a trading and manufacturing city rather than one built around a single monument.
On the map
Find it on the map
- Mardin City
Tours that visit Mardin
8 Nights / 9 Days
From Mesopotamia to the Caucasus
8 Nights | 1 Gaziantep · 1 Şanlıurfa · 1 Diyarbakır · 3 Mardin · 1 Van · 1 Kars — Göbeklitepe, Mardin and the haunting ruins of Ani.
11 Nights / 12 Days
The Ultimate Eastern Turkey Expedition
11 Nights | 3 Cappadocia · 1 Gaziantep · 1 Şanlıurfa · 1 Diyarbakır · 3 Mardin · 1 Van · 1 Kars — fairy chimneys, Mount Nemrut, Mardin and the haunting ruins of Ani.
14 Nights / 15 Days
The Ultimate Journey Across Turkey
3 Nights Istanbul | 3 Nights Cappadocia | 1 Night Gaziantep | 1 Night Sanliurfa | 1 Night Diyarbakir | 3 Nights Mardin | 1 Night Van | 1 Night Kars
Good to know
Before you book you should know
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Is this trip right for you?
Our groups are capped at eight travellers, which is about a third of what the industry calls a small group. Eight people share one vehicle, one table at dinner and one guide's attention, and the day can change on the road without anybody being left behind. If you are looking for a coach, a fixed script and a microphone, this is not that.
Most days involve real walking, often on ground that was laid two thousand years before walking shoes: marble worn smooth, cobbles, uneven steps and long site paths with little shade. Bring shoes you can spend a morning in.
Some days move between regions and are largely a drive, with stops along the way. Summers are hot — well over 35°C inland — and winters are colder than most people expect, so layers, a hat and sunscreen earn their place in the bag whatever the month.
How demanding a particular trip is, is written on the trip itself: the physical rating in the header, and the day-by-day itinerary above.
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Rooms, and travelling on your own
Trip prices are per person, sharing a twin room. Each traveller picks their own room while booking, so a party can mix the three:
- Twin share — two single beds, shared with someone you are travelling with or with a traveller of the same gender.
- Travelling as a couple — one double room.
- Individual room — a room of your own, for a single supplement on top of the trip price. Availability is limited, and the supplement for a given date is shown next to the option when you book.
Solo travellers are welcome on every departure, and most of our groups have one or two aboard.
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Accommodation
The hotels named in an itinerary are a guideline rather than a guarantee. Where one is full, or has dropped below the standard we booked it for, we substitute a property of a similar standard in the same area — we would rather change the hotel than the trip.
Check-in is usually mid-afternoon. If you arrive early we will ask for the room, but no hotel can promise one before its own check-in time; luggage can normally be left at reception in the meantime. If you want the room from the night before, ask us and we will add the extra night to your booking.
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Passports, visas and insurance
Entry requirements depend on your nationality and change without much notice, so the only reliable source is the official one: the government of the country you are travelling to, and your own foreign ministry's travel advice. Check both before you book a flight.
Many countries ask for a passport valid for at least six months beyond your travel dates, and for blank pages. It is worth looking at yours now rather than at the airport.
We ask every traveller to carry travel insurance covering medical treatment and repatriation, and we would strongly encourage cover for cancellation and for your luggage as well.
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Your departure is guaranteed — the day can change
Once a departure is on the calendar it runs. We do not cancel a trip for want of a minimum number of bookings, so a booked date is one you can plan flights and leave around.
What can move is the shape of a day. Museums and archaeological sites change their hours, roads close, weather turns, a local holiday lands in the middle of the week. Where that happens your guide reorders the day, or swaps a stop for one of the same weight, and tells you why. Changes to a booked itinerary are covered by our Booking Terms & Conditions.
