Gaziantep

Gaziantep is a city in Southeastern Anatolia. Although it is a major city in Turkey (counting almost 2 million inhabitants) and known as the Turkish capital of gastronomy, it counts very few international tourists. It has a quiet atmosphere and the locals are friendly (but never pushy, including in the bazars).

Understand
Set in the western reaches of the Southeastern Anatolian plateau, Gaziantep is a surprisingly large (with a population of almost 3,500,000) and modern city.

Among the locals, the city is informally known by its old name, Antep. The honorific gazi (Turkish for "veteran"), now an official part of the name, was added in 1921 in honour of the fierce resistance of the locals against the French (who ruled neighbouring Syria between 1920 and 1946) who occupied the city for a number of months in 1921, after Ottoman Turkey and its allies lost World War I. G.Antep, which can often be seen on some signs, is a compromise between the shorter, colloquial name, and the longer, official form.


 * Turkish Tourism Ministry updated information on Gaziantep

By plane
Gaziantep Airport. 15 km from city center. You can reach the city center from the airport with the Havaş shuttle service (13 lira, departs after all incoming flights).

By bus
The bus station (otogar) of the city is quite a few kilometers out of town. It is connected to city centre by local public buses. Take a bus going to the right from the stop just outside the Otogar. A yellow bus to Sümerbank will take you to Democracy Square in the centre. You can pay by card. A taxi ride from the program to the center should cost around ~200 TL (March 2024). Buses from Mersin on the Mediterranean coast in the west take around 5 hours and cost 200TL, while the service from Urfa in the east takes 4 hours and also costs 25 TL.



By train
As of 2022, passenger services are starting to return to Gaziantep. Trains have been cancelled for the last five years due to major track works in preparation for a new commuter rail system. While the new system, Gaziray, launched in late 2022 it will still take some time until long distance trains such as the famous Toros Express from Istanbul will return. A regional service from Nizip do operate daily. The nearest town served by long distance trains is Narlı, about 30 kilometers north, which sees one daily train from Adana.

International trains from Aleppo and Mosul are cancelled and with no end in sight for the Syrian Civil War nor the turmoil in northern Iraq, they are most likely not to be reinstated in the near future.



Get around
Gaziantep has an extensive public transportation system with both buses, trams, suburban rail as well as a small bike share program. Services are operated by Gaziulaş.

By tram
There are three tram routes with the north-south running T1 being the most useful for tourists as it connects the railway station with the central districts. Notice that while the station is named Gar (Turkish for station) the tram actually stops 250 m south of the railway station.

By walking
The city center is reasonably compact and walkable. Additionally, there's the suburban commuter railway which

By taxi
Taxis are plentiful and cheap, perfect for tired feet and taxi drivers always put on the meter (apparently no negociation is possible). Besides, you will find “taxi buttons” pretty much everywhere around the city: just press it (once!) and a taxi should arrive shortly.

By train
Gaziray suburban trains run every 30 min from Başpınar in the west through city centre to Taşlıca east. Tourists are unlikely to use them.

Do
Visit the castle, explore the bazaars and don't forget the museum. There are a lot of museums in the center of city, especially some of them are close to castle. You should go Mosaic Museum (close to stadium), Medusa Museum (Glass Museum), Martyr's Museum, Dervishes Museum (Mevlevihane), Hasan Süzer Etnographia Museum.

Walk around the narrow streets of the old town: between Attatürk bd. and Eyüpoglu cd. Sit in one of the Syrian-style cafes located in adorable courtyards and enjoy a tea, a lemonade or a meal.

Gaziantep is a quiet and peaceful city, it has a lot of parks, walking around the city in the parks is very pleasant.

Buy
You can buy a lot of traditional things in Gaziantep. You should try Bakırcılar Çarşısı, a traditional bazaar in the center of the city. You can buy baklava, nargile (hooka pipe), yemeni (local leather shoes), among other things. You can also find all sorts of copper arts and crafts in the copper bazar and in the shops around the castle: jewellery, decorative keys, tea pots and all sorts of dishes.

Eat
Antep, known as the gastronomy capital of Turkey, is on the list of UNESCO Creative Cities for its cuisine, and meals there are one of the highlights of visiting the region. So enjoy yourself.

The local cuisine is heavily influenced by its southern neighbours. The city is renowned for its local, spicy variety of kebab (Antep kebabı), available in many places. Make sure you enter a place that is crowded and order ayran with your kebab. Try a lahmacun, which is minced, marinated, spiced meat with minced vegetables on an extremely thin, crunchy dough. Lahmacun can be made with garlic or onions, but the Antep variety is with garlic. Dolma and sarma, vegetables wrapped in vine leaves, are among the vegan delicacies not to be missed.

You should have already taken the cue from the groves along the highways leading to Gaziantep; this is a pistachio-growing region. Many stores offer this local product (known in Turkish as Antep fıstığı, "the nut of Antep", a naming which surpassed the older Şam fıstığı, "the nut of Damascus", used during the Ottoman period). The roasted form seasoned with salt is a lot tastier than fresh. Those flavoured with spices are perhaps even more.

Upon finishing your dinner, make sure to have a baklava made with locally-grown pistachios. Most Turks consider Gaziantep to make the best baklava in the country. Also, you can try the hot desserts with a scoop of ice cream on top.

Drink
Many of Antep's drinking establishments are basically for picking up women. However there are some nice birahanes ("beer-houses") where you can enjoy a quiet drink in peace.

A good place to have drinks (and possibly international food) is Treff Bistro, in the middle of the festival park. Make sure you ask about the prices first as it can be quite expensive (especially alcohol).

Sleep

 * Allstar Sevcan Hotel. Three stars in city centre. +90 342 220 66 86.
 * Tugcan Hotel. Five stars in the city. +90 342 220 43 23
 * Tugcan Hotel. Five stars in the city. +90 342 220 43 23

Go next
From city's otogar you will find numerous agents selling tickets to dozens of destinations including Istanbul, Konya, Van, Dogubeyazit, and Antalya to name a few. Buses leave frequently. Shop around for the best price.

Urfa, the next major city to the east, is the obvious destination if you are heading that way. Somewhere around the Euphrates River on the way, you will find that it is time to say goodbye to the 'West', and be welcomed into the world of the 'East'. Even the language of choice on the streets will change, with the Turkish words thinning out more and more towards the east, even if you are still in Turkey.

Halfeti is a picturesque riverside old town in the northeast, off the highway to Urfa, partly inundated under a dam lake on the Euphrates. Sharing a similar fate, Zeugma, the origin of the rich mosaic collection now in exhibit in Gaziantep is also nearby.

However, before taking that direction, you might want to hit up to the north first, to Kahta for a visit to the Mount Nemrut, the summit of which is adorned with huge statues dedicated to the ancient gods.

If ancient statues scattered about the countryside sound interesting, the remote site of Yesemek near İslahiye (21 km southeast of İslahiye, 100 km southwest of Gaziantep) may also be worth checking out. This was a stone quarry used by the Hittites (a Bronze Age nation that was the first to found a state in Anatolia ever) as a statuary workshop. Later, it was abandoned and hence some of the half complete statues never made to the locations that they were intended to stand at first and dot the hillside of Yesemek instead since then. Daily 08:00-17:00, free. Post-2023 earthquake status: reopened to visits.