Beypazari
Encyclopedia
Beypazarı is a town and district of Ankara Province
in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey
, approximately 100 km west of the city of Ankara
. According to 2000 census, population of the district is 46,493 of which 35,775 live in the town of Beypazarı.
The district covers an area of 1814 km² (700 sq mi), and the average elevation in the center is 675 m (2,215 ft). The district contains three other small towns (Karaşar, Uruş, Kırbaşı) and 64 villages. It used to be an important city in Asia Minor
in ancient times.
's market in Turkish
, as in the Ottoman
period this was an important military base and the cavalry stationed here were an important element of the local economy.
, Phrygians, Ancient Romans, Byzantines
, Seljuk Turks and the Ottoman Empire
.
Originally a stop on a trade route connecting Istanbul
to Baghdad
, Beypazarı was known as Lagania (Greek: Λαγάνια), meaning rocky peak in the Luwian language
during the Roman
and Byzantine
times, and the town was a regional administrative center.
Lagania belonged to the province of Galatia
, which was occupied early in the 3rd century BC by Celtic tribes. The Gallic region was later (189 B.C.) subjected by the Romans and it became two Roman provinces: Galatia Prima and Galatia Secunda. Lagania was in the province of Galatia Prima but later received the name of Anastasiopolis during the reign of Emperor Anastasius I (491-518) after he had visited the city and liked it so much.
Like most Luwian cities located in West Anatolia, Lagania supported the Trojans during the famous Trojan war.
The town was also an episcopal see, suffragan of Ancyra (modern Ankara), mentioned by the Notitiae Episcopatuum
up to the twelfth and thirteenth century.
The town was conquered by the Seljuk Turks in the 12th century, and settled by various lords of the Oghuz Turks
, eventually becoming part of the Ottoman Empire
. Gazi Gündüzalp who is the grandfather of Osman I
, the founder of the Ottoman Empire, is buried in the Beypazarı village of Hırkatepe.
, a kind of natural soda used in glass-making is extracted in Beypazarı.
With its rich history, architectural heritage and attractive rocky countryside Beypazarı is becoming increasingly attractive to visitors, especially day-trippers from Ankara. The cobbled streets of white Ottoman period buildings are particularly attractive; many of the old houses have been restored as hotels and restaurants (and are also popular with Turkish film directors looking for authentic locations. Every June the town holds its popular Traditional Historical Houses, Handicrafts, Carrot and stew Festival. The visitors of course are bringing valuable income to the town, shopping for silverware and providing good custom for the food markets and restaurants.
For many visitors a major attraction is the cuisine, which includes typical Turkish dishes such as the yoghurt drink ayran
, tarhana
, stuffed vine leaves, home-made sausage mumbar
, and a stew cooked in a stone-oven güveç. Sweets include the sweet cream pudding called höşmerim and pastries including a dry buttery biscuit called Beypazarı kurusu, and a renowned 80-layer baklava
. They are also very inventive with their carrots, drinking carrot juice and producing carrot-flavoured Turkish Delight and carrot ice-cream. Beypazarı is surrounded by good farmland and the fresh ingredients are a large part of why Beypazarı's cooking is so popular with visitors. One of the best-known eateries is the restored Ottoman house, the Taş Mektep restaurant. A popular gift to take back home is the sticky sausage-shaped fruit and walnut sweet sucuk.
The town is unusual in Turkey for celebrating an Islamic festival (Regaip Kandili, the conception of the prophet Muhammad
) with lights and fireworks.
Beypazarı is a member of the European Association of Historic Towns and Regions (EAHTR).
Ankara Province
Ankara Province in central Turkey is the location of the country's capital, the city of Ankara.Ankara also gave its name to the Ottoman Empire's Ankara Province which covered a larger area than the current province.- Geography :...
in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, approximately 100 km west of the city of Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
. According to 2000 census, population of the district is 46,493 of which 35,775 live in the town of Beypazarı.
The district covers an area of 1814 km² (700 sq mi), and the average elevation in the center is 675 m (2,215 ft). The district contains three other small towns (Karaşar, Uruş, Kırbaşı) and 64 villages. It used to be an important city in Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
in ancient times.
Etymology
The name Beypazarı means The BeyBey
Bey is a title for chieftain, traditionally applied to the leaders of small tribal groups. Accoding to some sources, the word "Bey" is of Turkish language In historical accounts, many Turkish, other Turkic and Persian leaders are titled Bey, Beg, Bek, Bay, Baig or Beigh. They are all the same word...
's market in Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, as in the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
period this was an important military base and the cavalry stationed here were an important element of the local economy.
History
The area has a long history of occupation by HittitesHittites
The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...
, Phrygians, Ancient Romans, Byzantines
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
, Seljuk Turks and the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
.
Originally a stop on a trade route connecting Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
to Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, Beypazarı was known as Lagania (Greek: Λαγάνια), meaning rocky peak in the Luwian language
Luwian language
Luwian is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. Luwian is closely related to Hittite, and was among the languages spoken during the second and first millennia BC by population groups in central and western Anatolia and northern Syria...
during the Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
and Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
times, and the town was a regional administrative center.
Lagania belonged to the province of Galatia
Galatia
Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Galatia was named for the immigrant Gauls from Thrace , who settled here and became its ruling caste in the 3rd century BC, following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC. It has been called the "Gallia" of...
, which was occupied early in the 3rd century BC by Celtic tribes. The Gallic region was later (189 B.C.) subjected by the Romans and it became two Roman provinces: Galatia Prima and Galatia Secunda. Lagania was in the province of Galatia Prima but later received the name of Anastasiopolis during the reign of Emperor Anastasius I (491-518) after he had visited the city and liked it so much.
Like most Luwian cities located in West Anatolia, Lagania supported the Trojans during the famous Trojan war.
The town was also an episcopal see, suffragan of Ancyra (modern Ankara), mentioned by the Notitiae Episcopatuum
Notitiae Episcopatuum
The Notitiae Episcopatuum are official documents that furnish Eastern countries the list and hierarchical rank of the metropolitan and suffragan bishoprics of a church....
up to the twelfth and thirteenth century.
The town was conquered by the Seljuk Turks in the 12th century, and settled by various lords of the Oghuz Turks
Oghuz Turks
The Turkomen also known as Oghuz Turks were a historical Turkic tribal confederation in Central Asia during the early medieval Turkic expansion....
, eventually becoming part of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. Gazi Gündüzalp who is the grandfather of Osman I
Osman I
Osman I or Othman I or El-Gazi Sultan Osman Ghazi, or Osman Bey or I. Osman, Osman Gazi Han), nicknamed "Kara" for his courage, was the leader of the Ottoman Turks, and the founder of the dynasty that established and ruled the Ottoman Empire...
, the founder of the Ottoman Empire, is buried in the Beypazarı village of Hırkatepe.
Beypazarı today
Beypazarı today is a small town in a rural district famous for its carrots, (producing nearly 60% of Turkey's carrots), silverwork (Telkari), and a high quality natural mineral water. The crystal mineral tronaTrona
Trona ; Na3•2H2O is an evaporite mineral. It is mined as the primary source of sodium carbonate in the United States, where it has replaced the Solvay process used in most of the rest of the world for sodium carbonate production.- Etymology :The word "trona" comes to English by way of either...
, a kind of natural soda used in glass-making is extracted in Beypazarı.
With its rich history, architectural heritage and attractive rocky countryside Beypazarı is becoming increasingly attractive to visitors, especially day-trippers from Ankara. The cobbled streets of white Ottoman period buildings are particularly attractive; many of the old houses have been restored as hotels and restaurants (and are also popular with Turkish film directors looking for authentic locations. Every June the town holds its popular Traditional Historical Houses, Handicrafts, Carrot and stew Festival. The visitors of course are bringing valuable income to the town, shopping for silverware and providing good custom for the food markets and restaurants.
Ayran
Ayran or laban is a cold beverage of yogurt mixed with cold water and sometimes salt; it is popular in many Central Asian, Middle Eastern and South-eastern European countries....
, tarhana
Tarhana
Tarhana , trahanas or khondros , tarkhīneh, tarkhāneh, tarkhwāneh , trahana , трахана/тархана , kishk , or kushuk are names for a dried food based on a fermented mixture of grain and yoghurt or fermented milk, usually made into a thick...
, stuffed vine leaves, home-made sausage mumbar
Mumbar
Mumbar is a village in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is located at 32°59'10N 73°49'10E with an altitude of 229 metres ....
, and a stew cooked in a stone-oven güveç. Sweets include the sweet cream pudding called höşmerim and pastries including a dry buttery biscuit called Beypazarı kurusu, and a renowned 80-layer baklava
Baklava
Baklava is a rich, sweet pastry made of layers of filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey. It is characteristic of the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire and much of central and southwest Asia....
. They are also very inventive with their carrots, drinking carrot juice and producing carrot-flavoured Turkish Delight and carrot ice-cream. Beypazarı is surrounded by good farmland and the fresh ingredients are a large part of why Beypazarı's cooking is so popular with visitors. One of the best-known eateries is the restored Ottoman house, the Taş Mektep restaurant. A popular gift to take back home is the sticky sausage-shaped fruit and walnut sweet sucuk.
The town is unusual in Turkey for celebrating an Islamic festival (Regaip Kandili, the conception of the prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
) with lights and fireworks.
Beypazarı is a member of the European Association of Historic Towns and Regions (EAHTR).
Places of interest
- Hıdırlık Tepesi -hilltop view of the town
- Ottoman period buildings include the 17th century Suluhan CaravanseraiCaravanseraiA caravanserai, or khan, also known as caravansary, caravansera, or caravansara in English was a roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the day's journey...
, and the 13th century Sultan Alaedin Mosque. - The Kültür Evi museum displaying items from Hittite, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman times
- Inözü valley - steep-walled canyon, a green and pleasant place for a stroll, or to explore the caves, tombs and churches carved into the rock. There are cafes and restauarants for refreshments.
- There are many places for walks and picnics in the countryside surrounding Beypazarı including the banks of the Kirmir River, and Eğriova Yaylası and Tekke Yaylası areas of high meadow in the forest.