If you want to escape the sun, sea and sand holiday makers and experience Türkiye’s more traditional side, then this is the region for you.
A crossroads of civilizations since biblical times and much earlier.
Recent discoveries at Göbekli Tepe have led to a complete re-evaluation of early human settlements.
The mighty Euphrates and Tigris Rivers rise here.
The Syriac monasteries in Mardin and Midyat still chant in Aramaic.
The summers are long and dry. As the region is perfect for agriculture, you won’t be surprised that the best kebabs and vegetables are part of everyday life as you feast on the local cuisine.
Gaziantep
Thirty km from Gaziantep, the Sof Mountain Yayla is reached via a stabilized road. Although the yayla has electricity, water and PTT
Siirt is the secret city of Upper Mesopotamia, which has protected the remains to which it is home for centuries. Siirt is like a pretty bride who makes the rocky shroud of Cizira Botan a veil for herself. The very name of Siirt comes from a love story…
Once upon a time a scoutmaster had a beautiful daughter. She was obliged to marry someone with whom she was not in love... But, in reality, she was in love with a shepherd named Ali who was out in the meadows with his flocks. As the bride-to-be travelled from one nomad group to another to be introduced everyone could hear the plaintive music of a simple reed flute echoing across the entire plateau. The sound was coming from the flute of Shepherd Ali. The girl lifted her veil and shouted out towards the place from where the music emanated:
Seğirt Ali! Seğirt! Come running Ali! Get me out of here! After this touching invocation, a storm blew up, and the wedding ceremony plans fell into ruins. Shepherd Ali came quickly on his prairie horse and rode off with his loved one. They disappeared into the endless plateau, to their boundless happiness...
A nomad group was established on the place where the wedding ceremony dispersed, and it was called "Seğirt" which means "koş" (run) in Turkish. This name in time transformed into Siirt.
