Dülük Ancient City (Doliche Mithraeum) and Burç Forest Park

Ten kilometres north of central Gaziantep (just across the ring road in Şehitkamil, 15 minutes by taxi or municipal bus from the Train Station), the pine-forested hills of Dülük (ancient Doliche) hold the oldest human footprints in the region alongside a rare underground sanctuary of the Roman Empire.

1. Dülük Ancient City (Doliche) and the Underground Temple of Mithras

Before Hellenistic Antioch or Zeugma existed, Doliche was the primary settlement and religious sanctuary of the Gaziantep plateau, inhabited continuously from the Lower Palaeolithic era (600,000 years ago, when flint tools of the Dülükian culture were knapped in the caves of Şarklı Mağara) through the Hittite, Persian and Roman periods. Located inside the peaceful, shaded camping and picnic forest of Dülükbaba Tabiat Parkı, the site is famous for two distinct discoveries:

• The Underground Mithraeum (Mitras Tapınağı, at Keber Tepe): excavated in 1997 to 1998 by archaeologists from the University of Münster, this two-chamber subterranean rock-cut cavern is the largest known underground temple dedicated to the Indo-Iranian and Roman mystery god Mithras in Anatolia. Walk down into the natural limestone cave to see the rock-cut cult relief where Mithras slays the cosmic bull (tauroctony), which early Christians later chiselled over with a large cross in the 4th century AD, alongside rock-cut dining benches where Roman legionaries held secret initiation banquets.
• The Rock-Cut Necropolis and Quarries: surrounding the hill are dozens of vaulted Roman family rock tombs and ancient quarries where massive limestone blocks were cut while still attached to the bedrock.

2. Alleben Pond (Alleben Göleti), Erikçe Forest and Botanical Garden

When you want a cool afternoon breather in nature after three days of feasting in the bazaar, head fifteen minutes west of downtown toward the green hills of Erikçe Park, Burç Forest (home to Turkey's largest biological zoo park spanning 1,000 acres of woodland) and the lakeside promenade of Alleben Göleti, or take a leisurely stroll right in the middle of town through the 17-hectare Gaziantep Botanical Garden (Botanik Bahçesi) next to the Masal Parkı tram stop, featuring nine themed gardens of medicinal herbs, roses and Ottoman fruit trees.