Across Turkey by train: riding the Mesopotamia Express | Turkey holidays

It’s 11.30am in Diyarbakır’s railway station. Women in oversized sunglasses and hijabs are posing for pictures underneath retro clocks bearing the TCDD logo of Turkey’s state rail network. A young, lightly bearded man reclines on a bench, his heart-shaped balloon on a string wafting in the breeze taking the edge off today’s 38C scorch. Red bunting hangs from the platform ceiling. Shrill whistles cut through piped bağlama music as the Mesopotamia Express pulls up.

Running 653 miles (1,051km) between Turkey’s capital Ankara and Diyarbakır, the Kurdish-majority city not far from the Syrian and Iraqi borders, the Mesopotamia Express was launched in April, running once a month in each direction for three months. I’m taking its final service of 2024, with the TCDD saying it should return in 2025.

Making long stops at a few cities and only offering private two-berth cabins, the Mesopotamia Express is a more comfortable, sightseeing-friendly version of the existing Güney Kurtalan Express, which travels the same route but makes 52 short stops between Ankara and Diyarbakır. I paid 8,000 lira (£194) for my Mesopotamia Express cabin; a government-subsidised seat on the Güney Kurtalan Express costs £8.50.

This two-tier model was also rolled out in April for the Van Gölü Express between Ankara and Tatvan, a city by Lake Van, Turkey’s largest lake. The “touristic” service is also reportedly part of the Turkish authorities’ drive to get more tourists thinking beyond its hotspots, such as Istanbul and Antalya.

The Doğu Express, running between Ankara and Kars, near the Armenian and Georgian borders, was responsible for this Turkish night train perception shift from functional towards fun. After vloggers showcased the Doğu Express’s mountainously beautiful route, tourists began booking tickets alongside rurally based locals on the train, before the “official” touristic version was launched in 2019.

To see if one of these new services is worth the spend, I booked the westbound Mesopotamia Express, beginning in Diyarbakır, where visitors are usually drawn to the historical centre’s antiques stores and smoke-billowing grill restaurants. Cafes have been built around ancient city wall sections; others remain derelict after clashes between Turkish forces and Kurdish militants, mainly in the mid-2010s.

Following a tip from artist Erkan Özgen, I go to a residential area a 20-minute drive west from the old town. Here, in the shadows of high-rise flats, Rıdvan Kuday Gallery recently opened to showcase Kurdish art. As I arrive, giggly young artists are pegging fresh prints on washing lines to dry them. Dainty ceramic shoe sculptures by Sinan Kaplan line the gallery’s white walls. Colour-saturated portraits by Bedran Tekin depict residents in front of black-and-white building destruction. The gallery is a blast of contemporary freshness in the ancient, sand-hewn city, and not just because the air-con is set to “tundra”.

The air-con in my train cabin isn’t quite as powerful, but it’s a welcome perk of the premium ticket price. I also get my own sink, plug socket, door key, a fridge that doesn’t work, plus juice and chocolate to put in it. I go to the dining carriage. Here I meet Hayriye and Seher, two women from Ankara armed with a violin and guitar respectively. At midday, as the train departs, they tune up while train staff plonk doner meat plates around us. The passengers show their appreciation of a serene rendition of classical Turkish song Fikrimin İnce Gülü.

At 4pm, we pull into the tiny Yolçatı station for the first of two long stops. A coach convoy drives us through the nearby city of Elâzığ and up winding roads to a dusty, sun-blasted peak. This, it turns out, is the ancient town Harput. A man in a red baseball cap, some kind of guide I assume, leads us past the semi-derelict Harput Castle and into Harput Great Mosque. This building, violinist Hayriye explains via Google Translate, was built around 1157 and is famed for its crooked stone tower. A large bent tree next to the mosque gets extensive commentary too. We’re told that the tree is also famous because it looks like it’s prostrating itself.

Admiring the bent tree proves to be quite the ice-breaker. A fellow passenger, travelling with his two children, invites me to eat adana kebab in a nearby restaurant. A train crew member, in his wine-red waistcoat and TCDD pin badge, starts calling me “Tolstoy” after hearing that I’m a journalist. The school trip vibes kick in even harder when the coach takes us back to the train, and I join in with passengers manically singing Turkish pop. Well, I clap and sing “lalala”, seemingly being the only non-Turk on the trip.

After a mercifully snore-free night, we arrive in the city of Kayseri at 9am. We’re supposed to have three hours here but, because the train is late, we get two. This stop was promoted as a chance to visit Kayseri’s Grand Mosque and Seljuk Civilisation Museum, but there isn’t time. The musicians and I pick a restaurant near the station and make sandwiches out of rich, dark purple pastirma: a Kayseri cured beef speciality.

I prefer this stop to the coach-herded Harput excursion. Perched on stools outside the Kayseri restaurant, then back in the dining carriage, passengers share bread, sugared nuts and wet wipes, while I horrify many with tales of putting milk in tea. Before our 7pm arrival in Ankara, I accumulate a long list of recommended restaurants to visit, albeit all of them kebab joints.

So, is the Mesopotamia Express worth the expense? I loved it, primarily when enjoying the music in the dining carriage. With long stops allowing you to visit four cities over two days (on the east-bound route it’s three cities: Ankara, Malatya and Diyarbakır), it’s a good option if you’re pressed for time – and if the train isn’t too late. Despite the train officially being a “touristic” service, I felt a sense of purpose and drive as we trundled towards the capital.

However, if you don’t mind stretches in spine-bothering open-plan seating, you could take the “standard” Güney Kurtalan Express on the same route as the Mesopotamia Express, spend a few days in the same city stops, and pay much of your hotel expense with the money saved. While the Mesopotamia Express is finished for 2024, the Güney Kurtalan Express runs all year, five times a week in each direction.

Still, whether officially “touristic” or not, a bad east Turkey night train option probably doesn’t exist. Now I’m eyeing up Van Gölü Express tickets to complete the set.

The Mesopotamia Express is expected to return in 2025. A two-person cabin costs 9,000 Turkish lira (£218) Ankara to Diyarbakır one-way, and £194 in the opposite direction. Train tickets are sold via Turkey’s state rail network’s (TCDD) website and app (on Apple’s App Store and Google Play), as well as by English-speaking agencies, such as Amber Travel. Accommodation in Diyarbakır was provided by Radisson Blu Hotel, Diyarbakır (doubles from £115 B&B). Accommodation in Ankara was provided by Crowne Plaza Ankara (doubles from £125 B&B)