Gaziantep City Guide

Gaziantep City Guide

Being the most crowded city of the Southeast Anatolia Region, Gaziantep, with its population over 1.2 million, is the 6th biggest city of Turkey. Being on the way of the Historic Silk Road, Gaziantep is the intersection point of the roads from south to north and to east.

Tourist Attractions

Gaziantep located between Mesopotamia and Mediterranean Sea is one of the first settlement places in Anatolia. Therefore, the city had been the residential area for almost all empires and for most of the civilizations in Anatolia throughout its history. Equally, Gaziantep harbours a versatile history and culture.

Some historical places that you should visit
Gaziantep Castle located on 25-30 m high cap at the center of the city is a magnificent structure from the history.

Zeugma Archaic City next to the Firat River (Euphrates) 10 km east of the Nizip District has a history tracing back to 300 B.C. Rumkale (Rum Castle) and Duluk (Doliche) Archaic Cities are the other ones located near the Yavuzeli district.

Yesemek Outdoor Museum and Gaziantep Archeology Museum are important historical artifacts. The Historical Gaziantep Houses are important architectural works from the history.

Culture & Entertainment

The language used in Gaziantep and the local artifacts represent the cultural life peculiar to Gaziantep. Particularly, the phonetic difference between the standard west Turkish and the Turkish used in Gaziantep is highly evident.

The traditional Gaziantep handicrafts is another facet of the culture of the city. Pearl embroidery, copper working, silence clothe handloom, Gaziantep handmade, silver embroidery, Gaziantep kilims, jewellery, Gaziantep drum and horn, production of musical instruments are all authentic Gaziantep handicrafts. Hunting tourism is pervasive at Gaziantep. Around Euphrates, there are partridge, wild duck and goose. Also, within the forest of Gaziantep, it is common and highly possible to see a great deal of rabbit, partridge, waterfowl, wild pig.

Photography and auto safari are prevalent at the city.

Food & Drink

Gaziantep cuisine is a pretty popular one. Special sauces, mulls, mixtures special to the city are available making the taste of the foods of the city different and delicious. Actually, Gaziantep has a unique, rich food list that is hard to see an example of it in the world. Every kind of food can be found at Gaziantep. Kofteler(meatballs), soups, meat foods, vegetable foods, kebab, fried meat, fried food, dolma (stuffed vegetables), foods with yogurt, food with olive oil, pastries, salads, pickles, marmalades and desserts, cevizli sucuk (walnut and grape) and more and more are the foods of the cuisine of the city. There are lots of foods under these each titles. Also, Gaziantep is famous with its baklava and peanut.

Gaziantep Desserts;

Baklava, havuc dilimi (carrot slice), kare baklava (special square baklava), sobiyet, bulbul yuvası, dolama, fistik ezmesi (peanut puree), kurabiye, kirma kadayif, burma kadayif, asure, zerde, sutlac (milky dessert), bastik, nise helva, irmik helva, tahin helva, cevizli helva (helva with walnut), leblebili helva (helva with roasted chickpeas), kuncullu helva, tel helva, kuymak, kaygana, sillik, kerebic, mayanali kahke, hedik...

Shopping

Shopping centers are gathered at spesific areas of the city. Mutercim Asim, Gaziler, Suburcu, Karagoz and Sihcan streets are important shopping places. Moreover, Municipality Passage, Big Passage, Soylemez Passage, Halep Passage, Suriye Passage and Kurtulus Passage are popular places.