The Mardin Archaeological Museum and Sakıp Sabancı City Museum

Before you even walk down Birinci Cadde, the two grandest 19th-century institutional buildings in Old Mardin stand within a two-minute walk of each other right at the western entrance plaza of Cumhuriyet Meydanı, housing the city's two flagship museums.

1. The Mardin Museum (Mardin Arkeoloji ve Etnografya Müzesi, Cumhuriyet Meydanı)

Built in 1895 by Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Behnam Banni as the Syriac Catholic Patriarchate (and later restored by the Ministry of Culture into one of the most interactive regional museums in Turkey; Museum Pass Turkey is valid), this three-storey carved limestone palace is worth an hour for its architecture alone, featuring three tiers of vaulted arcades looking straight out over the Mesopotamian plain:

• Assyrian, Urartian and Artuqid Treasures: displays 6,000 years of northern Mesopotamian archaeology excavated from Girnavaz Höyüğü (Nusaybin), Dara and Boncuklu Tarla (a 12,000-year-old Neolithic site older than Göbeklitepe in Mardin's Dargeçit district). Inspect Neo-Assyrian cuneiform clay tablets recording real-estate deeds and silver loans from 650 BC, Bronze Age necklaces, Roman gold wreaths and Islamic astrolabes.
• The Interactive Ethnography & Craft Galleries: recreates the traditional stone-cutting, telkari silver-working, copper-tinning, soap-making and multi-faith bridal traditions of Mardin, with a shaded terrace café facing the plain.

2. The Sakıp Sabancı Mardin City Museum & Dilek Sabancı Art Gallery (Just Below the Square)

Walk two minutes down the ramp below Cumhuriyet Meydanı to a monumental two-storey stone quadrangle built in 1889 by Governor Çerkez Hasan Pasha during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II as the Hamidiye Cavalry Barracks (Süvari Kışlası). Restored by the Sabancı Foundation and Mardin Artuklu University in 2009:

• The Upper Floor (Life in Old Mardin): housed inside the lofty former troopers' dormitories, displaying 19th- and 20th-century archival photographs, Syriac and Arabic printing presses, musical instruments (kemane and ud), costumes and weapons that show how Muslims, Syriac Christians, Armenians, Chaldeans and Yazidis shared the city's guilds and neighbourhoods.
• The Lower Vaulted Stables (Dilek Sabancı Art Gallery): where the cavalry horses were once tethered to stone rings, now hosting acclaimed contemporary art, sculpture and photography exhibitions (and venues of the international Mardin Biennial).