Malatya is a busy city situated on a fertile plain at the foot of the Anti-Taurus Mountains. The Archaeology Museum houses new finds from the Lower Fırat region that date from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic ages. Next to the city museum, you can shop in at the bazaar where an entire passageway of shops is devoted to copperware. In Malatya, the apricot growing center of Turkey, it is possible to sample many delicious apricot confections as well as other fresh and dried fruit.

SITES OF INTEREST: Pınarbaşı forest recreation area, Takaz Spring, Old Malatya (today Battalgazi), Castle, Malatya, Arapkir and Darende Grand Mosques, Şahabiye-i Kübra old theological school (medrese),Sadrazam mosque complex, Melik Sunullah, Akminare, Abdülselam, Karahan, Cafer Pasha, Mirliva Ahmed Pasha, Gümrükçü Osman Pasha, Çobanlı and Köprülü Mehmed Pasha mosques, Ispanakçı Mustafa Pasha Library (later Molla Eyüb Mosque), Kanlı (bloody) Vault, Twin Mausoleums, Şeyh Hamid-i Veli (Somuncu Baba) Dervish' Lodge, Silahtar Mustafa Pasha Inn, Taşhan, Kırkgöz Bridge, Bazaar (Arasta of Haç Hüseyin Pasha), Hasan Pasha and Köprülü Mehmed Pasha baths.