Eastern Anatolia: Gaziantep to Trabzon

This fifteen-day private tour moves through the full depth of eastern Anatolia — from Gaziantep, the culinary capital of Turkey, through the Mesopotamian plains of Urfa and Mardin, north through the highlands of Diyarbakır, Van and Kars, and finally across the Black Sea ranges to Trabzon on the coast. The route connects the world's oldest temple complex at Göbeklitepe with the medieval Armenian capital of Ani, the Urartian fortress above Lake Van with the cliff-carved İshak Paşa Palace, the Syriac monasteries of Tur Abdin with the Byzantine frescoes of Sümela. It is not a highlights tour. It is a journey through one of the most layered and least-visited landscapes in Turkey, with a private guide for every day of it.