Experience the best of Diyarbakır

Diyarbakır's walls, built of dark basalt and studded with towers and gates, enclose the old city. The fortress and the Hevsel Gardens were inscribed together as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2015, recognising a landscape that is both military and agricultural.

The Hevsel Gardens lie along the Tigris below the walls, watered from the river, and they grow vegetables and fruit. The Ulu Cami, the Great Mosque, dates from the medieval period and stands in the old city, and an old ten-arched bridge over the Tigris lies to the south. Mardin, a honey-coloured hill town, lies about 80 kilometres to the south-east.

Diyarbakır's kitchen is hearty. Kaburga dolma, lamb ribs stuffed with rice and spices, is a local speciality, and liver kebab is eaten at breakfast. Diyarbakır watermelons, grown on the Tigris floodplain, are famous across Turkey. Summers are hot and dry and winters are cold, so late spring and early autumn are the easiest times to visit.