Gaziantep, Turkey
Tourism

... More >

boundary of the gently undulating Gaziantep plateau. At the center lies Gaziantep itself, the provincial capital and economic hub of the region. Sprawled in the shadow of its mighty fortress crowning an enormous hüyük (settlement mound), Gaziantep is a modern industrial city. Around it the countryside is given over predominantly to tobacco growing and groves of fruit and nut trees, pistachio nuts and olives in particular.

History

As the perennially disputed frontier region between Asia Minor and Syria, over which many different armies have fought, the area around Gaziantep has had a chequered history. In the late Hittite period it was the site of an important settlement which fell to the Assyrians during Sargon's reign. Thereafter in antiquity the city was overshadowed by Doliche 10km/6mi to the northwest, coming to dominate the region only in the Byzantine period. Known by this time as Ayntap (Good Spring), it was held between 1071 and 1098 by the Seljuks who, in place of an earlier fortress built by the Emperor Justinian, constructed the citadel. In 1097 Ayntap was in Crusader hands. It suffered badly during the Egyptian occupation in 1832-40 (Mehmet Ali). From 1918 to 1921 it was under first British and then French military administration, resistance to which earned Antep the honorific title "Gazi" (Gazi Antep, i.e. "Warrior" Antep). There are no notable antiquities in the city.