For the five day bayram (holiday) that we had at the start of May, I decided to take the famous GAP Tour–a traditional tour that many Türks take at some point in their lives to get to see and know parts of Southeast Anatolia. GAP stands for Güney-Doğu Anadolu Proje, or Southeast Anatolia Project. You can read a bit about its history on this website from the Ministry of Industry and Technology. I participated on what is probably the shortest version–five days and four nights–as there are others that run for a week or nine days.
I was able to secure the last seat available on an Academic Tour, considered by many to be THE best tour company in Turkey. I can say that I agree, and I highly recommend the company. Everything was top notch! Our guide was a walking encyclopedia–full of endless knowledge about each and every place we visited. There were 33 people on the tour; I was the only foreigner. We had a number of families and 20 of the people were friends and family that had traveled together on previous tours. Everyone was kind and inclusive.
I will endeavor to have a future post that may offer more details about the places we went and the things we saw; however, for this post I will share an overview of the five days and four nights.
Day 1: Met at the airport very early (04.30), flew to Adana, met our bus, and drove on to Antakya where we toured the Hatay Mosaic Museum, visited St Peter’s (the first cave) Church, and enjoyed some free time in the center market area (Çarşı) where we could enjoy a meal and try the famous künefe. We drove on to Gaziantep as darkness descended. We had dinner together in our hotel.
Day 2: After breakfast at the hotel in Gaziantep, we made our first stop to enjoy one hour boat trip on the Euphrates in a place called Halfeti which is famous for being the place where a number of films and shows have been filmed and is also the only place in the world where black roses grow naturally due to the soil configuration there. The boat trip was beautiful. From there we drove to the Atatürk Dam which opened in 1992 and is the third largest dam in the world. After a quick lunch in Adıyaman, we had our excursion up to Mt Nemrut which is most certainly one of the top highlights of this whirlwind tour. After sunset, we drove back to Adıyaman for dinner and another fast night of sleep.
Day 3: We drove to Diyarbakır. As someone who usually rents a car and drives in Turkey, I very much enjoyed all the time I was able to sit and watch the landscape change from the bus window. We moved from rolling agricultural lands to areas littered with volcanic rocks. Both areas had herds of sheep and their herders (which reminded me a bit of Mongolia). We spent a few hours in Diyarbakır, exploring what we could. It was bayram which meant is was strangely busy with people, but also had sites and shops closed for the holiday. We had tea at the Kervan Saray Otel, toured the Ullu Mosque (consıdered to be the fifth most holiest site in Islam), walked past the Kemel Paşa Çarşı, drove along the Black Sur (an 8 km wall through the city), and had lunch in the city. On the drive to Mardin where we would spend the night, we stopped off for a couple of hours in Midyat to have a drink and do a little shopping (I bought a few bottles of Süryani wine–aka Assyrian wine).
Day 4: Woke up in Mardin where we spent our morning and early afternoon. We toured the Deyrulzafaran Monastery, Kasımiye Madrese, and then had time in downtown Mardin to eat/shop. I enjoyed a couple glasses of Süryani wine with a cheese plate. I wasn’t on this trip to shop. It’s always about food, drink, and seeing the sites, as well as experiencing the feel of a place and its people. We departed early afternoon and drove on to Harran, located 15 km from the Syrian border, to visit some historic uniquely shaped stucco houses. Then we drove to Şanlıurfa where we visited briefly the Balıkgol in the city center. Due to bayram business and traffic, our time was shortened. We checked into our hotel and had time to change before we were whisked off for our special event, a sıra gecesi.
Day 5: Our first stop of the day was the famous Göbekli Tepe–a site that altered our understanding and knowledge of human existence after it was discovered in the 1960s. Excavations began intensely in the 1990s. This was certainly THE highlight of the trip for me. You can view my slideshow using this link. In the afternoon we drove to Gaziantep where we toured some highlights in the Zeugma Mosaic Museum, including the famous gypsy girl. Then we had a couple of hours to tour the central market place and have something to eat and/or drink. We boarded our bus around 4 pm as a small rainstorm came through town. Then it was on to Adana where we had a quick bite before being dropped at the airport to catch our 10.30 flight back to Izmir, arriving at midnight.
Whew! As you can see it was absolutely a whirlwind of sites and scenery. I am considering this the “familiarization tour” and hope to visit many of the places again but with the time to dig deeper. As I have said in nearly every post I share about Turkey, you may cross one or two places or sites off your list, but I promise you will add more. There is just too much of interest to see and experience in this wonderful country I call home. I’ll leave you with this delicious visual…