January 03, 2026

AT#977 - Travel to Southeastern Turkey

1 hour 8 minutes

Hear about travel to Southeastern Turkey as the Amateur Traveler talks to Mark Michael from rambleswithmark.com about this region that is the home to people in the Bible like Paul and Abraham, ancient monasteries, and some of the oldest known megaliths.

Connection to Region

Read William Dalrymple’s From the Holy Mountain in college, a journey through the region retracing the steps of John Moscos, a seventh-century monk

It’s hard to underestimate how ancient this part of the world feels. In Urfa, they have a few prized local delicacies: one is a meatball they say that Abraham invented, another is a dessert they call Noah’s pudding, and there’s a pancake covered in molasses that is supposed to derive from the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. I have made a lot of Christian pilgrimages, almost always to sites from the New Testament or the early church; many sites on this trip are associated with Muslim traditions about Old Testament figures, which are usually similar but different from those preserved by Jews and Christians. If you are interested in the history of the Ancient Near East, Turkey is by far the easiest place to travel: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel are all barred or unsafe.

Turkey has good roads, helpful people, and relatively low costs (though inflation has climbed steeply in the past 2 years)

Area is changing quickly through massive investment in GAP Project (22 hydroelectric dams on the Euphrates, 19 power plants, with initiatives to develop agriculture and tourism in region that has been Turkey’s poorest), allowing for development of tourist infrastructure, but accelerating decline of traditional ways of life, if you go now, it will still seem timeless, and you will be ahead of the tourist rush

You feel like a traveler here, not a tourist. I only met one other native English speaker. People are curious and enthusiastic to show you their local treasures.

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https://amateurtraveler.com/travel-to-southeastern-turkey/

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By Chris Christensen

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