Diyarbakır

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Amed Diyarbakır historical ten eyed bridge 05, Diyarbakır, Diyarbakır Province, Turkey

Seyrangeha Parkormanê Amed 2010, Diyarbakır, Diyarbakır Province, Turkey

Diyarbakır İçkale during restoration in 2024 6796, Diyarbakır, Diyarbakır Province, Turkey

Diyarbakir city walls DSCF9385, Diyarbakır, Diyarbakır Province, Turkey

About Diyarbakır

Black basalt walls, a Tigris bridge nearly a thousand years old and breakfast tables in a 16th-century caravanserai: Diyarbakır is one of the most atmospheric old cities in southeastern Turkey. Known as Amed in Kurdish, it is the largest city of the region and a cultural centre for Kurdish life, with markets, music and food that feel distinct from the rest of the country.

The city grew on a basalt plateau above the Tigris, and its fortifications, rebuilt many times since Roman days, still wrap the old quarter of Sur. In 2015 UNESCO listed the Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape as a World Heritage Site. Inside the walls stand the Great Mosque, Armenian and Syriac churches, Ottoman mosques striped in black and white stone, and the restored İçkale citadel.

Plan on walking: lanes of courtyard houses lead to caravanserais, coppersmiths and kebab grills. Climb a tower at sunset, cross the Ten-Eyed Bridge, and save a morning for a long Diyarbakır breakfast. Summer is very hot, so spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons.

Best seasonApril to June and September to October; July and August are very hot.

Ideal stayTwo days for the walls, old-town mosques and churches, the citadel and the Tigris bridge.

ArrivingDiyarbakır Airport has direct flights from Istanbul and Ankara and lies a short drive from the old town.

Top 12 Experiences in Diyarbakır

Landmarks 3

Diyarbakır City Walls

Among the longest and best-preserved city walls in the world, these dark basalt ramparts loop for several kilometres around the ol...

Dicle Bridge

Called the Ten-Eyed Bridge for its ten stone arches, this basalt crossing over the Tigris was built in 1065 during the Marwanid pe...

Four-Legged Minaret

The minaret of the Sheikh Mutahhar Mosque stands on four slender stone columns, so you can walk right underneath it, and local tra...

Temples and Shrines 3

Great Mosque of Diyarbakır

One of the oldest mosques in Anatolia, the Ulu Cami was rebuilt in the Seljuk era and is often compared to the Umayyad Mosque in D...

Surp Giragos Armenian Church

This large Armenian church in the lanes of Sur was restored and reopened in 2011, a landmark moment for the city's Armenian herita...

Behram Pasha Mosque

Built in the 1570s for an Ottoman governor, this mosque shows the classic Diyarbakır style of alternating bands of black basalt an...

History 2

Diyarbakır İçkale

The inner citadel in the north-east corner of the walls was the seat of rulers for centuries and has been restored as a cultural c...

Deliller Han

Built in the 16th century near the Mardin Gate, this black-and-white stone han was a stopping point for pilgrims and caravans head...

Viewpoints 1

Keçi Burcu

The Goat Tower is a massive bastion on the southern walls, one of the oldest parts of the fortifications, and its terrace looks st...

Nature 1

Hevsel Gardens

Spread between the city walls and the Tigris, these gardens have fed Diyarbakır for thousands of years and are part of the UNESCO...

Food and Drink 1

Hasan Pasha Han

Opposite the Great Mosque, this two-storey caravanserai from the 1570s once lodged merchants and their animals and now hums with b...

Museums 1

Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı Museum

The family house of Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı, one of the best-loved Turkish poets of the 20th century, is a fine example of a tradition...

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Photo: Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

Photo: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Photo: Dosseman, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: R Prazeres, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

Photo: Dosseman, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

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