The Dawn of Civilization: Göbeklitepe & Şanlıurfa

Day by day

Your itinerary

1. Day1

   Arrival in Şanlıurfa, a city of ancient traditions

   Your private guide and driver meet you in Şanlıurfa. Depending on your arrival time, explore the old city and the sacred carp pools of Balıklıgöl, linked by tradition to the prophet Abraham, then wander the bazaar lanes. Your guide sets the scene for the days ahead: why this region, at the crossroads of ancient cultures, matters so much.

   Overnight in Şanlıurfa

2. Day2

   Göbeklitepe: monumental architecture before cities

   Stand among the great T-shaped pillars of Göbeklitepe, carved with foxes, boars, snakes and vultures some 11,000 years ago, when people here were still hunter-gatherers. Your guide explains what archaeologists now think the site was for, and what it tells us about early ritual and the first settled communities. Back in Şanlıurfa, the Archaeology Museum, subject to opening hours, holds the finds, including the oldest life-size human statue known.

   Overnight in Şanlıurfa

3. Day3

   Karahantepe and Harran

   Visit Karahantepe, part of the wider Taş Tepeler (Stone Hills) landscape, where ongoing excavations keep uncovering carved heads and pillars that rival Göbeklitepe. Continue across the plain to Harran, inhabited for thousands of years, with its mud-brick beehive houses and the ruins of one of the oldest universities in the Islamic world. Return to Şanlıurfa.

   Overnight in Şanlıurfa

4. Day4

   Şanlıurfa and departure

   A last morning for a museum or historic site that rounds off the journey, depending on your flight time, then a private transfer to Şanlıurfa Airport.