From Mardin, we drive further west and soon stop at Göblekitepe, which, after Çatalhöyük, is one of the absolute highlights of the journey in terms of Stone Age sites. The settlement was inhabited from around 9500 BC to at least 8000 BC and is renowned for its circular structures, which house some of the world’s oldest known megaliths. Many of these massive stone pillars are decorated with anthropomorphic details and sculptural reliefs of wild animals. Super interesting!
A few kilometres to the west — and several millennia later, from the perspective of the inhabitants of Göblekitepe — lies the ancient site of Zeugma, dating back to the early days of the Seleucid Empire. Today, much of the city lies submerged in the Euphrates River, which was dammed as part of the GAP project. The next day, we visit the astonishingly rich and detailed mosaics from the later Roman period at the Zeugma Museum in Gaziantep.
We’re quite lucky that the campsite in Gaziantep was still open and reasonably priced, so we spend two nights there, restocking, washing clothes and relaxin a bit. Of course, we also walked through the surprisingly picturesque old town of this booming south-eastern Turkish city, with its famous old market and lots (!) of street cats.