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Region in Turkey
Photo: Senol Demir from Turkey, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
While not on the same level as the buses in western Anatolia, the bus service into and throughout Southeastern Anatolia is decent enough.
Read in the guideBus and minibus service is generally robust, although schedules are not closely adhered to and you may find yourself waiting an extra hour or two for that minibus that everyone has been promising will arrive soon.
Read in the guideChoose an airport to see hotels, stations, taxi ranks and car rental desks around it.
Mardin · Regional · MQM
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Gaziantep is a city in Southeastern Anatolia. It's Turkey's fifth largest city, with a population of 1,700,000 in 2022, and its best-known attraction is the collection of Roman mosaics from Zeugma.
Halfeti is a town in the flooded Euphrates river gorge in Southeastern Anatolia, with a population of 9100 in 2022. It's a scenic location with several half-submerged buildings.
Mesopotamia is in the Middle East, mainly in present-day Iraq, with parts of it in Syria and Turkey and influence extending into what are now Iran and the Persian Gulf states. The name translates literally as 'between rivers', and an alternate term is the Land of the Two Rivers.
Kahramanmaraş, which used to be known as Maraş, is a city in Turkey, located on the crossroad of southern, eastern and southeastern Turkey.
Mount Nemrut - the one with giant heads - is described here. The one with a crater lake is near Tatvan.
Karkamış is a small border town in Southeastern Anatolia, noted for being the site of the ancient city of Carchemish.
Kilis is a town in Southeastern Anatolia, just north of the Syrian border. In 2023 its population was 131,000.
Nizip is a city in Southeastern Anatolia, 50 km east of Gaziantep. Together with its outlying towns such as Birecik it had a population of 150,000 in 2023.
Urfa (also Şanlıurfa, formerly Edessa) is a city in Southeastern Anatolia, and the provincial capital of Şanlıurfa Province. The city is about 80 km east of the Euphrates River, and with a population of 600 thousand is smaller than nearby Gaziantep.
Diyarbakır is the largest city in Southeastern Anatolia. Its 2024 population of 1,165,000 are mostly Kurdish, who call it Amed, and it’s been a flashpoint in the struggle for Kurdish autonomy.
Eğil (pronounced eh-eel) is a town in Southeastern Anatolia, with a predominantly Kurdish population of 4600 in 2022. It's part of Diyarbakır province and easily reached from that city, but has become cut off from the east as a barrage lake now floods the Tigris valley.
Ergani (pronounced ar-GHA-ni) is a town in Southeastern Anatolia, with a population of 137,000 in 2023. It’s part of Diyarbakır province and is post-industrial, with open-cast mines of iron and copper that are now exhausted, so the town has slumped.
Mardin is a city in Southeastern Anatolia, with a population of 194,000 in 2023, and industries based on agriculture. It has an attractive old town, with decorated stone buildings cascading down the sides of a valley, and views over the Mesopotamian plains below.
Batman is a city in Southeastern Anatolia, with a population of 492,000 in 2023. It's the chief city of an oil-producing area and is entirely modern.
Hasankeyf is a relocated village on the north bank of the Tigris River in Southeastern Anatolia, with a population of 8000 in 2023. The original village on the south river bank had been settled for over 2000 years but was submerged in 2020 by the Ilısu dam project.
Midyat is a city in Southeastern Anatolia, with a population in 2025 of 70,000. Its main attraction is its compact old town, and collection of outlying monasteries.
Nusaybin is a city in Southeastern Anatolia, with a predominantly Kurdish population in 2023 of 119,000. It's on the border with Syria but there is nowadays no crossing here, and the north-south road has been torn up and replaced by a minefield.
Siirt is a city in Southeastern Anatolia, with a population of 161,000 in 2022, mostly Kurdish.
Mount Nemrut - the one with giant heads - is described here. The one with a crater lake is near Tatvan.
Diyarbakır is the largest city in Southeastern Anatolia. Its 2024 population of 1,165,000 are mostly Kurdish, who call it Amed, and it’s been a flashpoint in the struggle for Kurdish autonomy.
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