Population: 4,000
Until recently there was not much reason why anyone would venture south of Nizip to Karkamış despite the fact that there was once a major Neo-Hittite settlement nearby. Until the war in Syria, Karkamış was the crossing point for travellers wishing to reach Jarabulus. Now only a breezeblock wall greets visitors. Even the railway line once built by the Germans to link Berlin with Baghdad now stands abandoned.
But an archaeopark covering the site of Kutawa’s Palace, a neo-Hittite edifice on the banks of the Fırat (Euphrates) river, opened in 2019 to showcase some of what archaeologists have discovered at a site that straddles the Syrian border, with two-thirds of it in Turkey and the other third in modern Syria. This was always a potentially important site, not least because it appears in the Bible as the site of a battle between the Egyptians and the Babylonians that took place in 605 BC. It is known to have been settled since Neolithic times but its true period in the sun fell under the governance of the Hittite and neo-Hittite rulers. I last visited in 2015 so have not seen the archaeopark.
Aside from the vitally important ancient structures Italian archaeologists have uncovered at the site, they have also found the remains of the house used by pre-First World War archaeologists who worked here including Leonard Woolley and TE Lawrence (later Lawrence of Arabia).
You can also get an overview of the site from the Yunus cemetery on the outskirts of town. Excavations there have revealed that it has been in use since at least the Iron Age.
Sleeping
There is nowhere to stay here. The nearest hotel in is Nizip. You’re probably better off visiting from Gaziantep.
Transport info
Hourly dolmuşes leave a stop beside/behind the Çarşı Cami in the centre of Nizip every hour.
