Things to do
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Bakırcılar Çarşısı
The coppersmiths' bazaar below the castle, where the trade is still worked by hand and the sound of it carries down the lanes. The surrounding hans sell spice, pistachio and mother-of-pearl inlay.
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Emine Göğüş Culinary Museum
A nineteenth-century courtyard house given over to the city's kitchen, which UNESCO lists as a creative city of gastronomy, covering the wheat, the pepper and the pistachio. It is small and it explains the region better than any label in the archaeology museum.
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Gaziantep Castle
A Roman watchtower rebuilt by Justinian and again by the Seljuks, on a mound at the centre of the old city. The February 2023 earthquake brought down sections of the walls and bastions, and access has been restricted since.
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Gaziantep Zoo
One of the largest zoos in Europe by area, on the northern edge of the city, with a large aquarium and open enclosures. It is the standard family half-day here.
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Halfeti
A town on the Euphrates partly drowned by the Birecik dam in 2000, where boats pass over the roofs of the old quarter and a minaret stands out of the water. The black roses grown here are the other local claim.
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Rumkale
A fortress on a promontory where the Merzimen stream meets the Euphrates, held by Armenian patriarchs and then the Mamluks, now half-surrounded by the reservoir and reached by boat from Halfeti. The approach is the best part.
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Zeugma Mosaic Museum
The mosaics rescued from the Roman city of Zeugma before the Birecik dam flooded it in 2000, shown in the largest mosaic museum in the world, with the Gypsy Girl panel as its centrepiece. Two hours is not too long.