Adiyaman, Turkey

Capital City

Living costs are relatively low in this Kurdish-majority city in southeastern Turkey, where summer temperatures regularly blast past 40°C (104°F) and winter snowfall is common due to its inland elevation. The former Byzantine frontier town has transformed into a modest urban center of 71,644 residents, marked by both Turkish and Kurdish cultural influences.

The city retains traces of its ancient history as Perrhe and later Hisn Mansur, with notable archaeological sites including the Pirin caves 5km away that served as burial grounds for millennia. While Mount Nemrut draws some tourism traffic, the city's primary significance today is as a regional administrative hub with one university and three major high schools. A renovated Syriac Orthodox church, reopened in 2012, serves as the center of the patriarchal vicarate and stands as the province's only active church.