From Gaziantep to Mardin

To explore the sites along Turkey's southern border, take the highway which connects Gaziantep, Sanliurfa and Mardin to Syria and Iraq.
Gaziantep (685 km southeast of Ankara) is located on a wide and fertile plain cultivated with extensive olive groves and vineyards and produces a wide variety of agricultural crops.
The 36 towers of the city's fortress were originally constructed in the Justinian era and were later rebuilt by the Seljuks. The Archaeology Museum has important artifacts from Neolithic, Hittite and Roman times. The Hasan Suzer House, from the turn of the century, has been beautifully restored as the Ethnographical Museum.
In the great Upper Mesopotamian plain, Sanliurfa, thought by some to be the ancient city of Ur and later known as Edessa, proudly exhibits the legacy of all the civilisations that have prospered in this region. Some of the oldest signs of civilisation, dating to 7000 B.C., were found 70 kilometres northwest of Sanliurfa, at the village of Kantara.
In the 12th century B.C. Kahramanmaras (78 km north of Gaziantep) was the capital of the Hittite state of Gurgum. A massive citadel built in the 2nd century B.C. now houses the city museum with a good collection of Hittite sculptures.Adiyaman (153 km northeast of Gaziantep) the Archaeological Museum houses regional finds from the Lower Firat which date from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic ages.