Adiyaman, Turkey

Adiyaman is Turkey’s oil boom town, with all the good and bad of that “honor.”

When oil was discovered around nearby Kahta, the money flowed into Adiyaman, the provincial capital.

Now this formerly down-at-heels town has numerous mid-range hotels (to house the oilies) along Atatürk Bulvari (the main highway through town), and an airport with flights to and from Ankara twice weekly.

If you have your own car and like mid-range hotel comforts, you may want to make Adiyaman your base for the ascent of Nemrut Dagi.

Adiyaman (AH-duh-yah-mahn) has a good museumhousing artifacts recovered from several of the archeological sites (including Samsat/Samosata) inundated by the filling of the lake behind the Atatürk Dam.

Distances & Travel Times

Adana: 370 km (230 miles) NE, 6 hours

Diyarbakir: 200 km (124 miles) E, 3.5 hours

Erzurum: 524 km (326 miles) NE, 9 hours

Gaziantep: 149 km (93 miles) S, 2.5 hours

Istanbul: 1220 km (758 miles) NW, 18 hours

Kahramanmaras: 164 km (102 miles) W, 2.75 hours

Kahta: 32 km (20 miles) E, 30 minutes

Kayseri: 450 km (280 miles) W, 8 hours

Malatya: 185 km (115 miles) N, 3 hours

Nemrut Dagi (Summit): 84 km (52 miles) NE, 2 hours

Sanliurfa: 108 km (67 miles) SE, 1.5 hours