Gaziantep, Turkey

Continuously inhabited since: 3650 BC
Gaziantep is a city in southeast Turkey, located 185 km northeast of Adana and 127 km north of Aleppo, Syria. It is the sixth most populous city in Turkey. Dating back to the fourth millennium BCE, Gaziantep has traces of Hittite settlement that continued till about 1183 when it was conquered by Turkish tribes. Till then, it was predominantly a Syrian town named ‘Hamtap’. The Ottoman Empire invaded the place in the early 16th century and named it ‘Ayintab’, meaning ‘good spring’. The rule continued uninterrupted for three centuries until 1919 when it was occupied by the British, which was followed by a French control in 1920. In 1922 however the Turks won back their land from the French troops and the prefix ‘Gazi’ was added, meaning ‘warrior of Islam’ and hence the name Gaziantep.