We followed footsteps of our daughter Julie who traveled with Taha to Mesopotamia in Turkey last year. Since we allocated more time (8 days) to this region, we visited more places and at a slower pace. It was important for us due to age. Taha organized everything for our trip in SE: hotels, route, transportation, selection of sites, restaurants; all were perfect. Taha is local to the region, so he has firsthand knowledge about life there that he shares and knows more interesting places to show than any outsider guide. We enjoyed our trip with Taha and recommend him for your next trip to Mesopotamia (Gaziantep, Halfeti on Euphrates River, Mt. Nemrut, Arsemia, Cendrede Bridge, Karakus, Ataturk Dam, Urfa, Harran, Gobeklitepe, Hasankeyf on Tigris river, Midyat, Mardin).

My passion for Mardin region has started 5 years earlier with an article in Pagasus' in-flight magazine. Finally, we've made it happen and booked our flight, also posting our tour request here on TourHQ. We were looking for an offbeat experience, listing sime highlights we would like to visit. Within our first (yet online) contact, Taha has seamlessly extended our initial list with absolute gems like Harran, Göbeklitepe and Halfeti. Within our 5-day journey we've also visited Nusaybin, Dara, Mardin, Midyat, Hasankeyf, Mount Nemrut, Ataturk Dam and Şanlıurfa.

From the very beginning at the airport and until the very end in Mardin, Taha managed to compile a very exciting, culturally and historically rich tour, in which we had a great feeling of local life. As a very knowledgeable person and a skilled storyteller, he showed us a very interesting picture of how different civilizations, nations, languages and traditions created a unique blend here in South Eastern Turkey. A great asset of this tour was getting to know with Taha's help a lot of local people: Turkish, Assyrians, Kurds, Syrians - their stories helped me understand this land better.

Taha has also covered all the logistics issues for us, including hotel bookings and driving all the way of our 1,500 km route. He knows all the places with excellent food, so definitely we enjoyed delicious lunches and dinners at a very reasonable price. Overall, he has taken a great care of us and showed great flexibility and patience with our numerous questions and requests. Also, there were many cases, when he walked the extra mile for us, which we do appreciate.

I would definitely recommend Taha to anyone who would like to explore the region, for you to also enjoy his friendliness, outstanding knowledge of places and cultures and fall in love with this place, like we happened to do.

We met Taha in Urfa who was referred to us by a local site seeing guide, whom we hired in Istanbul.

Taha was waiting for us at the Urfa Airport (Proper Name + Link), on short notice the evening before our arrival. Taha's vehicle was very comfortable and immaculately clean. He indicated he was willing to drive us to any location within an approximate 200km radius.

During our time in and around Urfa, Taha was sincerely friendly, exceptionally courteous and considerate. Taha entertained all of our questions and requests without hesitation. He was clearly passionate and knowledgeable about the historic places we intended to visit, and other great places he recommended. Some of these included:

Gobekli Tepe

http://gobeklitepe.info

Euphrates River

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphrates

Şanlıurfa Castle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Eanl%C4%B1urfa_Castle

Şanlıurfa Museum

https://www.muze.gov.tr/tr/muzeler/sanliurfa-arkeoloji-ve-mozaik-muzes

Over all, we found Taha to be Professional, yet Personable. Selflessly considerate, and Passionately committed to showcasing his city and region of deeply ancient culture, no doubt a source of personal pride... a 5/5 rating of resourcefullness is an understatement.

His service rate was very reasonable; something which we increased based on his exceptional provision. We highly recommend Taha that you would consult with him, help plan and assist you navigate and explore the Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey.

John Leonard

Canada