AMIDATigris Tours
· ·
The black basalt city walls of Diyarbakır above the Tigris

At the head of the Tigris · Upper Mesopotamia

Where the river of cities begins.

Diyarbakır rises in black basalt on the banks of the Tigris — for nine thousand years a frontier where Rome met Persia, and the doorway to the oldest sanctuaries on earth. We lead small groups through the walled city and out across Upper Mesopotamia, slowly and with people who know the stones by name.

Plan a group tour See the route
9,000+years of continuous city
The longest complete city walls standing anywhere on earth — second only to the Great Wall of China.

A ring of black basalt wraps the old city of Sur for almost six kilometres, ten to twelve metres high, raised on a volcanic plateau a hundred metres above the Tigris. The Romans called the city Amida; the Turks called it Kara Amid — Black Amida — for the dark stone that gives it its face.

Inscribed by UNESCO in 2015, the walls carry the marks of every power that held this crossing: Roman courses, Artuqid towers carved with lions and eagles, Ottoman repairs — thirty civilizations layered into one rampart.

5.8 kmof basalt ring
82towers & bastions
63carved inscriptions
4ancient gates

Read the ground

Nine thousand years, layer by layer.

Stand anywhere in Sur and you stand on a stack of cities. Each empire built on the last, in the same black stone — this is the order they came in.

c. 3000 BCEBronze Age
Hurrians & MitanniThe first settlement on the Amida mound, inside today's citadel.
9th c. BCEIron Age
AssyriansAmida enters the records of the great Mesopotamian kings.
6th c. BCEAchaemenid
PersiansThe first of many Persian centuries on the Tigris frontier.
297 ADAntiquity
RomansConstantius II raises the basalt walls that still define the city.
4th–6th c.Frontier wars
SasaniansShapur's armies cross the river; Amida changes hands again and again.
6th c.Late antiquity
ByzantinesJustinian rebuilds the fortifications and the gates.
10th–11th c.Islamic
Arabs & MarwanidsThe Kurdish Marwanids make Amida a capital; the Ten-Arched Bridge is built.
1183–1409Medieval
ArtuqidsThe great carved towers — Ulu Beden, Yedi Kardeş — and finer masonry.
1515 →Empire
OttomansCaravanserais, mosques and hammams that still stand in Sur today.

And older still, on the same horizon: Göbekli Tepe, raised before pottery, before writing, before the wheel.

Inside the walls · Sur

A day's walk through black stone.

Everything below sits within the old city — close enough to cross on foot between morning tea and an evening on the ramparts.

The Walls Black basalt ramparts of Diyarbakır

The Ramparts

Walk the chemin-de-ronde from the Mountain Gate to Mardin Gate, past towers carved with twin-headed eagles, the Tigris valley falling away below.

BazaarThe Four-Footed Minaret in the old city of Sur

Sur & the Coppersmiths' Bazaar

The Bakırcılar bazaar still rings with hammered copper. Diyarbakır's silver and gold filigree — telkari — is some of the finest in the region.

Mosques The Great Mosque of Diyarbakır, Ulu Camii

The Great Mosque & the Four Houses of Prayer

Ulu Camii, the oldest mosque in Anatolia, set in a Roman-style courtyard — plus the city's quartet of historic mosques and the famous four-footed minaret.

Caravanserai Courtyard of Hasan Pasha Han caravanserai

Hasan Paşa Hanı

A 1575 Ottoman caravanserai of striped black-and-white stone. Its arcaded courtyard is now the city's favourite place for breakfast and endless small glasses of tea.

HammamDeva Hamamı, a historic Ottoman bath in Sur

The Old Hammams

Domed Ottoman baths cut from the same basalt, light falling in shafts through star-holes in the ceiling. Steam, scrub, and a glass of cold şerbet after.

İçkale

The Inner Castle & Museums

İçkale — the citadel and Amida Mound — now an open-air museum with the Archaeology Museum and the black-and-white Cemil Paşa Mansion, the City Museum.

The River The Ten-Arched Bridge over the Tigris

The Ten-Arched Bridge & the Tigris

The Marwanid bridge of 1065 strides the river on ten basalt spans, below the UNESCO-listed Hevsel Gardens — 700 hectares of green between wall and water.

A Table in StoneThe arcaded courtyard cafe of Hasan Pasa Hani

Dinner in a Basalt Courtyard

We close the day in a restored han — kaburga dolması, meftune, sour-cherry kebab — with a glass of Süryani wine, the Assyrian winemaking tradition that has run through this region for centuries.

Beyond the city · The Upper Tigris circuit

This is the top of the Tigris — and everything begins near here.

Diyarbakır is the hinge. Within a few hours sit the oldest temple ever found, a stone city on a hilltop, the legends of Abraham, and a Roman fort guarding a frontier against Persia. We string them into one journey.

The carved megaliths of Göbekli Tepe
01 · Şanlıurfa province

Göbekli Tepe

More than 10,000 years old — older than farming, pottery or writing — and widely called the oldest place of worship on earth. T-shaped pillars carved with foxes, scorpions and vultures, raised by people we are only beginning to understand.

The world's first sanctuary
The stone houses of old Mardin on its hillside
02 · One hour south

Mardin

A honey-coloured city of carved limestone tumbling down a hill above the Mesopotamian plain — Artuqid mansions, terraced rooftops, and ancient monasteries where monks still pray in Aramaic, the language of the Bible.

Stone city on the plain
Balikligol pool with Urfa Castle and its twin columns above
03 · Şanlıurfa (Urfa)

Urfa & the Nimrod Legend

The City of Prophets. At Balıklıgöl, the carp-filled pool where legend says King Nimrod (Nemrut) hurled Abraham into a fire that turned to water. Beneath the old castle's twin columns, the oldest stories of the region are still told aloud.

Where the legends are set
The ruins of Zerzevan Castle, a Roman frontier fort
04 · On the road to Mardin

Zerzevan Castle

A Roman garrison on the empire's furthest eastern edge, watching the road where Rome and Sasanian Persia fought for centuries. Underground lies a Mithraeum — a hidden temple of the soldier-god Mithras, the only one known on the eastern frontier.

Rome's last watchtower against Persia

For groups & tour leaders

We carry the logistics. You keep the wonder.

Whether you bring a club, a university group, a family party or a ready-made tour you're leading yourself, we build the days around you.

I

Custom itineraries

From a single day inside the walls to a week across Upper Mesopotamia — paced for your group, not a coach schedule.

II

Guides who live here

Local leaders, licensed guides and, at the digs, working archaeologists who can open doors a guidebook can't.

III

Transport & stays

Airport transfers, comfortable vehicles, and hand-picked hotels — including caravanserais turned into hotels in Mardin and Sur.

IV

The table & the cellar

Breakfasts in stone courtyards, regional feasts, and evenings with local Süryani wine in restored historic houses.

Plan your journey

Tell us who's coming.

Send the rough shape of your trip — group size, dates, how long you have — and we'll come back with a proposed route and a quote. No deposit to ask a question.

Email hello@amida-tours.com WhatsApp +90 500 000 00 00 Based in Sur, Diyarbakır, Türkiye

Your details are used only to answer your enquiry. We don't share them.