Turkish Mountain Villages
18Thursday 19 September, 2013 by Uncle Spike
How many posts do you see about Turkey? And how many feature just Istanbul, Ephesus, Pamukkale, Cappadocia or a trip around the Turkish Riviera (Kaş, Kalkan, Fethiye etc)?
Naturally, most folk will travel to these primary sites as part of a coordinated 5-10 day visit, perhaps en route to other countries. Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to post a collection of photographs from some of the less populated and certainly less visited inland mountainous regions of the west, so here goes…
Within the provinces of Muğla (pronounced Moo-la) and Denizli (Den-izz-li), there is a long stretch of the West Taurus mountains, part of the Taurus Mountain complex that divides the Mediterranean coastal region of southern Turkey from the central Anatolian Plateau. With peaks of up to 3500 metres (11,500 ft), and many hectares of pine forested foothills, the whole area is rarely seen through the eye of tourist cameras; not that it is inaccessible, just off the main tourist trail.
Mostly the area is commercially forested by the government and local workers, with other livelihoods being made from farming, trout farms, small leather factories, and bee-keeping. Having travelled here for getting on 18 years and lived here since 2006, I have seen a fair bit off the beaten track – it’s a far cry from Istanbul, I can tell you. Hope you enjoy these shots.
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Hi. Lovely pictures. I would like to live in the mountains country side in turkey In the next 5 years. You give me something to think about.
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Nice scenery. With that being said, let me also add that Istanbul, Cappadocia and Fethiye is awesome places. Ephesus is just a boring collection of ruins, but the beer is nice.
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Very true, spent much time in many cities here too, but most folk never get to see the real country…
Use the search thingy and you’ll see some posts about Ankara, our capital city, which you may enjoy too.
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Had no idea that Turkey has snow-covered mountains. I always prefer to see life in the villages and hinterland, more so than city-life. Thanks for sharing your post…
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No problem 🙂
Yes we have many mountain ranges here (it’s a huge country), ski resorts and much of the country is paralyzed by snow in winter. Even the capitol has -15C daytime temps for a month sometimes
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Great top see you’ve viewed this older post – it’s such a shame when they get passed over for the new stuff. So thanks, made my day 🙂
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Hi Uncle Spike, Thanks for visiting my blog and liking my post. I am working a couple of months in Turkey and really like your suggestions for alternative places to visit. Count me as one of your followers.
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Excellent 🙂
Are you based in Ankara? I know it well as my wife’s family are there and she worked there for 20 years…
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Based in Ankara, next months rehabilitation fieldwork in Haliköy (Izmir) abandoned mercury mine and Balya (Balikesir) abandoned Lead-Zinc mine. Any ‘secret’photo tips for Ankara?
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Lovely photos, was the tortoise a pet or just roaming wild?
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Just wild. We have loads of them plus lizards large and small roaming everywhere. Every spring the whole valley echoes from sets of 2-3 tortoises attempting to increase their numbers (so to speak). When we first moved here, I thought some neighbour was building a new fence, lol
Did you see the foto I had of a little fella my son found in the garden once?
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No, I laughed when I saw the one about you uncovering the black widow spider, I have two brothers and I was the only one brave enough to hold a big snake whose head and tail touched the ground with its body around my neck. I volunteered my eldest brother for white water rafting in Slovakia where health and safety seems to be just a second thought. Send me the link to your sons photo 😉
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The two shots of tiny wee beasties I took in the garden here were:-
https://unclespikes.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/macro-monday-baby-monster/
https://unclespikes.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/wordless-wednesday-little-tortoise/
🙂
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Great pics , would love to see this turkey , maybe next year
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Good pictures – as you suggest I have only been to commercial Turkey!
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Thanks Andrew, that means a lot.
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Enjoyed your post. Beautiful Pic!
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Glad you liked it and thanks for the ‘follow’. My blog is still pretty raw and new, so I really appreciated the support of my early followers.
Uncle Spike
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