Antioch to Tur Abdin Tour – 10 Days

Your journey begins at Cukurova Airport, where our representative meets you and transfers you by private vehicle to your hotel in Adana. The day carries no sightseeing, so the rest of it is free to recover from your flight. Adana lies in ancient Cilicia, the region Paul named as his home, and tomorrow begins in his birthplace, Tarsus. Dinner and overnight in Adana.

Biblical References: Acts 21:39; Acts 22:3

The morning belongs to Tarsus. At St. Paul’s Well, local tradition places the neighborhood of his family home, a memory rather than an excavated house. The nineteenth-century St. Paul Memorial Museum, built as the town’s Orthodox church, keeps his name, and a short walk shows the old town’s later layers. We then drive east to Antioch on the Orontes. Dinner and overnight in Antakya. (about 3.5 hours of driving in total)

Biblical References: Acts 9:30; Acts 11:25–26; Acts 21:39; Acts 22:3; Galatians 1:21

At the Church of St. Peter, a cave sanctuary above the city, we recall the church where believers were first called Christians and Barnabas and Saul were sent out; tradition, not excavation, links the cave to Peter. On the coast, Seleucia Pieria was the port from which they sailed for Cyprus, and the Roman Titus Tunnel once shielded its harbor from floods. We continue east to Gaziantep. Dinner and overnight in Gaziantep. (about 4 hours of driving in total)

Biblical References: Acts 11:19–26; Acts 13:1–4; Galatians 2:11–14

The Zeugma Mosaic Museum holds Roman floors from a frontier city on the Euphrates, the Gypsy Girl among them, alongside Late Antique church mosaics from the region. At Halfeti a boat takes us along the Euphrates to view Rumkale, medieval Hromkla, seat of the Armenian Catholicos from 1113 to 1292, with the remains of a Syriac monastery inside its walls. The fortress is seen from the water; the boat does not land. We continue to Sanliurfa, ancient Edessa. Dinner and overnight in Sanliurfa. (about 3.5 hours of driving in total)

Biblical References: Genesis 2:14; Genesis 15:18

The morning begins at Gobeklitepe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site whose carved T-shaped pillars date to around 9600–8200 BC; no biblical event is tied to it. Back in Sanliurfa, ancient Edessa, we turn to the Syriac Christian learning of St. Ephrem and to the Abgar legend, a later tradition the New Testament does not record. At Balikligol, the Pools of Abraham, local tradition remembers the patriarch. A walk through the old bazaar leads to the former Reji Church of 1861, seen from outside. Dinner and overnight in Sanliurfa.

Biblical References: Genesis 11:27–32; Genesis 12:1–5; Romans 4:1–25; Galatians 3:6–9; Hebrews 11:8–12

Harran is widely identified with biblical Haran, where Terah settled, where Abram set out for Canaan and where Jacob later served Laban. We walk the ancient mound, the remains of the city walls and the beehive-domed traditional houses, which belong to recent centuries rather than to the patriarchs. In the afternoon we drive east to Mardin, built in terraces of golden limestone above the Mesopotamian plain, where the Syriac part of the journey begins. Dinner and overnight in Mardin. (about 3.5–4 hours of driving in total)

Biblical References: Genesis 11:31–32; Genesis 12:1–5; Genesis 28:10; Genesis 29:1–30; Acts 7:2–4; Hebrews 11:8–10

Deyrulzafaran Monastery, also called Mor Hananyo, served until 1932 as a seat of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, the church that traces its identity to the first Christians of Antioch. We visit the areas the monastery opens to visitors, timed around its midday prayer. In the old city, the sixth-century Kirklar Church, the Church of the Forty Martyrs, remains a place of worship for Mardin’s Syriac community. The day ends with a walk through Mardin Old City, its carved stone houses and its views over the plain. Dinner and overnight in Mardin.

Biblical References: Acts 11:19–26; Acts 13:1–3; Acts 2:42–47

Dara Ancient City was built around AD 505 as an Eastern Roman fortress on the Sasanian frontier. We see its walls, cisterns and rock-cut necropolis, where a gallery tomb has been interpreted in light of Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones. In Tur Abdin, Mor Gabriel Monastery, founded in AD 397, is among the oldest still-active monasteries of the region; visits follow its hours and its own guides where required. We end in Midyat, with a first walk through the old town if time allows. Dinner and overnight in Midyat. (about 3 hours of driving in total)

Biblical References: Ezekiel 37:1–14; Romans 6:3–4; 1 Corinthians 15:12–26

A day among the village churches of Tur Abdin, the “Mountain of the Servants of God”. At Hah, the Virgin Mary Church (Yoldath Aloho) rises under a central dome with finely carved stonework; a local legend links the village to the Magi, though Matthew’s Gospel names no stop here. At Salah, Mor Yakup Monastery keeps a sixth-century church with a five-sided apse and eighth-century donor inscriptions. Interior access follows each site’s arrangements. We return to Midyat for time in its stone-built old town. Dinner and overnight in Midyat.

Biblical References: Matthew 2:1–12; Luke 1:26–38; John 1:1–14

After breakfast we leave Midyat and drive to Mardin Airport for your departure flight, with the transfer timed to your flight. Behind you lies a route from the apostolic church of Antioch and Paul’s harbor at Seleucia, through Edessa and Harran, to the living Syriac churches of Tur Abdin. (about 1.5 hours of driving)