When the Birecik Dam was opened in 2000, the tranquil village of Halfeti and the nearby Rumkale and Savas villages became victims of Turkey's march to modernization.
These traditional villages, with their old Ottoman architecture, were partially submerged under the dam water, and many villagers were resettled by the government.
The villages make a lovely day trip from Gaziantep, though there's a slightly surreal edge to sightseeing here, with mosque minarets poking defiantly out of the dam water, and abandoned village houses tumbling right down to the shore.
