Mardin is one of the interesting settlements of Southeastern Anatolia with a different structure. The city was built on the southern slopes of the Thuja Mountains (Masius) on an area 2,500 meters long and 500 meters wide from east to west. When viewed from the castle and from the opposite side, the houses of Mardin seem to be piled one on top of the other. This overlapping and cramped construction, which arises from the natural location, gives the city a unique appearance. The wooded appearance of the surroundings and the white houses that descend in terraces from the foot of the castle to the plain create an interesting contradiction. This medieval architecture, which continues to this day, shows the character of a closed region, completely different from the urban structure of Şanlıurfa, which is closely connected to the architecture of northern Syria, and Diyarbakır, which is mixed with northern influences.

 Mardin is one of the most important cities in Anatolian domestic architecture, exemplified in the Central Anatolian cities of Niğde and Kayseri, and more widely in the Southeastern Anatolia region, where stone architecture is described as "similar to that of Northern Syria". Indeed, yellow limestone stone, which has many quarries in the region, dominated building production, and wood was not used except for compulsory uses such as doors, windows and mezzanines. Thus, stone determined every building element from ornamentation to the load-bearing system. Another factor in the shaping of this architecture is the climate of the region. In addition, semi-open spaces such as iwan and porticoes, which have an important place in the architecture, can be shaded especially against the western sun.