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Nature reserve
Diyarbakır
GAP
Priority Stop
NatureHevsel Gardens is a roughly 700-hectare belt of market gardens and orchards stretching between the black basalt walls of Diyarbakır and the Tigris River. This green ribbon, lying between the basalt escarpment on which the city was founded and the river valley below, has been a living agricultural landscape feeding Diyarbakır for thousands of years.
UNESCO World Heritage
In 2015 it was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List together with the Diyarbakır Fortress walls and the İçkale citadel under the name "Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape"; UNESCO registered the walls and the gardens as a single, indivisible cultural landscape. The site was placed on the tentative list in 2013 and inscribed in 2015.
History and Agriculture
Hevsel is first documented in ninth-century BC Assyrian-Aramean records; in 866 BC the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II deliberately destroyed the gardens while besieging the city. By the 17th century the gardens were famed for their orchards, vineyards, rose beds and basil; melons, grapes, apricots and the celebrated Diyarbakır watermelons grew here. Mulberry trees supported silk production, while poplar and willow timber was rafted down the Tigris as far as Mosul. Together with the Anzele water source and the Ten-Arched (On Gözlü) Bridge, the gardens formed a living link between city and river, supplying Diyarbakır with both food and water.
Today about one-third of the area is planted with poplars; the rest yields cabbage, spinach, lettuce, radish, parsley, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers and squash, along with peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, figs, mulberries and nuts. Because the steep, moist terrain does not suit machinery, the gardens are still worked by traditional hand methods, which makes Hevsel one of the oldest continuously cultivated agricultural areas in the world.
Visiting and Access
Hevsel is not a monument to enter but a living landscape best read from the ramparts, so agencies pair it with the Keçi (Goat) Bastion and the Mardin Gate viewpoints. From the top of Keçi Burcu, Hevsel, the bend of the Tigris and the Ten-Arched Bridge appear in a single frame — the city's most photographed panorama. A panoramic visit averages 30-45 minutes, rising to 1.5-2 hours if you descend the valley path.
Access is easy: municipal and public buses reach Dağkapı Square in the Sur district, the gardens are within walking distance of the walls, and entry is free. Tour coaches use the parking areas outside the Mardin Gate and below Keçi Burcu and the Ten-Arched Bridge. The bastion stairs and narrow wall passages make wheelchair access limited; visitors with reduced mobility can enjoy the view from the bridge area and the lower parking terrace.
The best time to visit is spring, when the gardens turn lush green, and autumn, when they glow in golden tones; summer middays can exceed 40°C with little shade, and the low sun near dusk is ideal for photography. On the standard old-city route, Hevsel is the natural finale reached via Keçi Burcu after the citadel and house museums, and the starting point for the descent to the Ten-Arched Bridge.
Visit & Logistics
Visit & Logistics- Getting thereIn the Sur district, on the southeastern flank of the old city. Reached from downtown via municipal buses, public buses and minibuses to Dağkapı Square; the gardens are within walking distance of the walls and Keçi Burcu. The airport is about 6 km from the city center.
- ParkingParking is available outside the Mardin Gate, around Keçi Burcu and at the lower Ten-Arched Bridge car park; since the old city is largely closed to traffic, vehicles are left outside the walls.
- Coach accessTour coaches cannot enter the old city; they use the car parks outside the Mardin Gate and around Keçi Burcu / the Ten-Arched Bridge, and groups walk up to the walls.
- AccessibilityLimited. The bastion stairs, narrow passages and uneven valley path are unsuitable for wheelchairs; the view can be enjoyed accessibly from the lower car park terrace and around the Ten-Arched Bridge.
- Photo spotsTop of Keçi Burcu (Hevsel + Tigris bend + Ten-Arched Bridge in one frame), the Mardin Gate viewpoint, the Tigris Valley terraces, the gardens' golden tones against the walls' silhouette at sunset.
- Suggested routeThe natural finale of the full-day old-city route: after the citadel and house museums, the Hevsel panorama from Keçi Burcu, followed by the descent to the Ten-Arched Bridge.
Tours that include this place