Savur ('Miniature Mardin'), Kıllıt (Dereiçi) and Kafro Assyrian Village

If you have a rental car or a local driver for your excursion day between Mardin and Midyat, taking the scenic northern mountain loop through Savur and Dereiçi (Kıllıt), or stopping for lunch at the remarkable diaspora village of Kafro, shows you a green, river-fed side of Mardin province that most travellers never see.

1. Savur ('Miniature Mardin', 45 km north-east of Mardin)

Unlike dry, desert-facing Old Mardin, the hillside town of Savur looks out over a lush, emerald-green valley watered by the Savur Stream (Savur Çayı), shaded by dense orchards of poplar, walnut, cherry, pomegranate and hazelnut trees. Tiered stone houses climb up to a medieval hilltop citadel in a layout that looks like an untouched, crowd-free 19th-century Mardin:

• Hacı Abdullah Bey Konağı: crowning the upper town is a magnificent three-storey 19th-century stone mansion with 25 rooms, antique furnishings, stables and a wide arched loggia looking across the green valley (open to visitors as a living museum guesthouse).
• Savur Stream Picnic Gardens: down in the valley floor at Başkavak, wooden seating platforms sit right over the cold rushing river water under giant plane trees.

2. Dereiçi (Kıllıt) Village (10 minutes east of Savur)

Tucked into a quiet valley where three different Christian denominations, Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic and Protestant, once had their own distinct stone churches standing within 300 metres of one another (centered on the monumental 7th/16th-century Church of Mor Yuhanun), Kıllıt (Dereiçi) is an atmospheric village of carved limestone arches, olive groves and local organic boutique wineries.

3. Kafro (Elbeğendi) Village & Kafro's Pizzeria (15 minutes south of Midyat)

One of the most inspiring modern stories in the Tur Abdin plateau: the Syriac Christian village of Kafro (Elbeğendi) was completely deserted in the 1980s and 1990s when its families emigrated to Germany, Switzerland and Sweden. In 2006, the diaspora families pooled their resources and returned to build a gleaming village of two-storey architectural limestone villas in the middle of the Tur Abdin hills, and one returning family opened Kafro's Pizzeria, serving authentic wood-fired Italian-and-Assyrian thin-crust pizzas under stone arches in the middle of rural Mesopotamia.