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 / Collection
Upper Mesopotamia
The plain between the two rivers and the limestone ridge above it, where settled life and the first temples began.
The wide, pale plains of southeastern Türkiye feel older than almost anywhere else on earth. The Tigris and Euphrates wind north from the Syrian border through a landscape of low limestone hills, pistachio groves and wheat fields that have been cultivated for millennia. This is Upper Mesopotamia — the northern fringe of the cradle of settled life.
The hill that changed history
On a barren hilltop near Şanlıurfa, a ring of T-shaped stone pillars rises from the soil. Göbekli Tepe is the oldest known monumental architecture on earth — older than the first Egyptian pyramids by some six thousand years. The monoliths are roughly carved with foxes, snakes and abstract shapes. Standing among them, you look out over treeless steppe where nothing visible explains why people once gathered here in such numbers. Archaeologists are still debating what this place was for.
Where Abraham walked
Below Göbekli Tepe, the modern city of Şanlıurfa sits in a shallow basin where spring-fed pools and underground channels keep gardens green through the dry months. The city is identified in religious tradition with Ur of the Chaldees, the birthplace of Abraham. Its covered bazaar, mosque courtyards and cave pools draw visitors interested in this layered history. The streets of the old quarter lead downhill from stone-paved squares toward the river, past workshops where coppersmiths and cloth weavers still work in the traditional way.
Walled cities and mountain tombs
The ancient trading routes that once connected Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean run through this region, and their legacy is visible in the cities that grew along them. Diyarbakır sits on a bend of the Tigris, its massive basalt walls stretching nearly five kilometres around a historic core that served as a Roman provincial capital and later an Ottoman administrative centre. Mardin crowns a hillside overlooking the Syrian plain — a city of narrow streets, ancient monasteries and steep views westward. North of Şanlıurfa, Mount Nemrut bears the weathered heads of giant statues placed by a Hellenistic king who wanted to be remembered forever.
What you encounter
The landscape here is semi-arid and windswept, dotted with the remains of settlements that archaeologists are still mapping. The light is flat and pale in winter; in summer the heat shimmers off the plains. Food in the region is hearty — lamb cooked with bulgur, lentils, flatbread baked in clay ovens. The sounds are those of small towns going about their business: the call to prayer from minarets, traffic in market streets, silence once you leave the cities behind.
Places in this group
Tours that visit Upper Mesopotamia
6 Nights / 7 Days
From Fairy Chimneys to Mesopotamia
6 Nights | 3 Cappadocia · 1 Gaziantep · 1 Şanlıurfa · 1 Diyarbakır — surreal landscapes and the cradle of civilization.
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.
3 Nights / 4 Days
Mesopotamia & Southeastern Turkey
3 Nights | 1 Gaziantep · 1 Şanlıurfa · 1 Diyarbakır — Göbeklitepe, Mount Nemrut and the cradle of civilization.
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
9 Nights / 10 Days
Turkey's Grand Cultural Journey
9 Nights | 3 Istanbul · 3 Cappadocia · 1 Gaziantep · 1 Şanlıurfa · 1 Diyarbakır — imperial capitals, surreal landscapes and the cradle of civilization.
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.
