Best Things to Do in Mardin

Mardin is a city of golden limestone light, deep silence inside medieval courtyards, and sweeping views over the Mesopotamian horizon. Here are the ten experiences that define a visit.

1. Watch sunset at Kasımıye Madrasa and climb Zinciriye Madrasa. Sit beside the symbolic "Pool of Life" at 15th-century Kasımıye on the lower slope, then climb to 1385 Zinciriye Madrasa directly beneath the Castle rock for the highest view in town.
2. Get lost in the abbara tunnels and stepped alleys of Old Mardin. Duck off Birinci Cadde into vaulted stone passages, passing the 1690 Şehidiye Postal Mansion and carved limestone doorways.
3. Admire the fluted minaret of Mardin Ulu Cami and the Historic Bazaars. Step into the 1176 Artuqid Grand Mosque, then browse copper, natural olive-oil soap and silver filigree in Revaklı Çarşı and Bakırcılar Çarşısı.
4. Tour Deyrulzafaran (Mor Hananyo) Monastery and Kırklar Church. Four kilometres east of town, descend into a 4,000-year-old subterranean Sun Temple beneath the former seat of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch.
5. Descend into the subterranean cisterns and rock necropolis of Ancient Dara. Explore East Rome's frontier garrison fortress, featuring a 25-metre-deep underground dungeon cistern and a multi-storey rock-cut gallery tomb.
6. Visit the Mardin Archaeological Museum and Sakıp Sabancı City Museum. housed in an 1895 Syriac Catholic Patriarchate and an 1889 cavalry barracks on Cumhuriyet Meydanı.
7. Spend a day in Midyat and Mor Gabriel Monastery (397 AD). Explore the carved mansions of Midyat, shop for telkari silver filigree and visit one of the oldest surviving Christian monasteries on earth.
8. Feast on stuffed lamb ribs (kaburga dolması) and sembusek. Dine on a candlelit stone terrace overlooking the lights of the Mesopotamian plain.
9. Taste Syriac monastery-style wine, bitter mırra coffee and blue almonds. Sample indigenous Öküzgözü, Boğazkere and white Mazrona grapes.
10. Drive to the green valley of Savur or eat wood-fired pizza in Assyrian Kafro. Discover a miniature hilltop Mardin and a rebuilt diaspora village.