A honey-coloured stone town above the Mesopotamian plain
Mardin rises in terraces up a hillside in south-eastern Türkiye, its honey-coloured limestone houses, mosques and madrasas looking south over the flat Mesopotamian plain. The town has long been home to Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish and Syriac Christian communities, and the Syriac Deyrulzafaran Monastery just outside town has been in use for many centuries. Walk the main street and its stepped side lanes, visit the Zinciriye and Kasımiye madrasas, and look out for local almond sweets and Syriac wine.