Gaziantep

Gaziantep is one of the oldest culture centers of Southeastern Anatolian region. The history of the city extends to 4000 B.C years and most of the civilizations were founded on the surrounding lands. The city is located between Mesopotamia and Mediterranean and is at the intersection point of the roads connecting east to south and north to west and is also located on the historic Silk Road.

Gaziantep - courtyard by CharlesFred

The province of Gaziantep hosts findings, creations and structures of Paleolithic, Neolithic and Calceolithic Ages, Bronze Age, Hittite, Median, Asurian, Persian, Alexander the Great, Selefkos, Roman, Byzantine, Abbasi and Seljuk civilizations periods. Beside its cultural riches, Gaziantep is a tourism paradise with its natural beauties, geography, rich variety of food and shopping possibilities.

Gaziantep (informally, Antep, Kurdish: Dîlok) is the capital city of Gaziantep Province in Turkey. With a population of 853,512 in the year 2000, it is the sixth largest city of Turkey and it is the largest city in Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region. The city was known by the Arabs, Seljuks, and Ottomans as ʿAintab or Aïntab, in Turkish Ayintap. The Turkish Parliament gave the city the title Gazi ("victorious warrior") on February 8, 1921 (the day before the city surrendered to the French) in recognition of the valor of its inhabitants during the Turkish War of Independence, and the city officially took the name Gaziantep ("Antep the Victorious Warrior") in 1921.

History

Antiquity

Gaziantep is probably the site of the Hellenistic city of Antiochia ad Taurum ("Antiochia in the Taurus Mountains"). A few km to the north are the ruins of Greek and Roman Doliche (Turkish: Dülük).

Gaziantep is one of the most developed provinces of the region and is also one of the oldest, its history reaching as far back as the Hittites. Being the center of pistachio nut cultivation in Turkey and with its extensive olive groves and vineyards, Gaziantep is one of the important agricultural and industrial centres of Turkey.

In the center of the city stands the Gaziantep Fortress and the Ravanda citadel as the reminders of past. The Archaeological Museum, with its important collections from Neolithic and the Hittite ages as well as the Roman and Commagene times, attracts many visitors. The surroundings of the city are also full of valuable Hittite remains. The Hasan Süzer House, which has been restored to its original beauty, now houses the Ethnographical Museum. The Yesemek Sculpture Workshop, 30 kilometers south of the town of Islahiye, is one of the world's first of this kind. Some of the other historical remains are the Belkis (Zeugma), and Kargamış Ruins by the town of Nizip. Duluk, which is close to the city center, has camping facilities in a natural setting.

Ottoman period

In the Ottoman period, Gaziantep was in the eyalet of Aleppo (vilayet after 1864).