Burdur Attractions
Western Taurus (Isaurian-Pisidian lake district)
Burdur, the provincial capital, lies in the approximately 50km/30mi-long Lake Burdur basin at the tip of a large alluvial fan formed by the Kurna Çayi. In an attempt to halt further erosion in the surrounding countryside a program of reforestation has been launched southeast of Burdur as far as the Çeltikçi pass. The town has little in the way of industry, the tractor plant being the most important.
The lake basin was already settled in Hittite times. After 1600 B.C. the Hittites overran this Arzawan territory on several occasions - one of the sons-in-law of the legendary Hittite ruler Shuppiluliuma I (1370 B.C.) was Arzawan. The name Burdur first appears in use in 1330 when the writer-traveler Ibn Battuta described a castle on a high summit overlooking the little walled town, at that time belonging to the beylik Hamid (Egridir). Burdur became an Ottoman possession under Bayazit I in 1391. In 1971 it was shaken by a violent earthquake.
Burdur, the provincial capital, lies in the approximately 50km/30mi-long Lake Burdur basin at the tip of a large alluvial fan formed by the Kurna Çayi. In an attempt to halt further erosion in the surrounding countryside a program of reforestation has been launched southeast of Burdur as far as the Çeltikçi pass. The town has little in the way of industry, the tractor plant being the most important.
The lake basin was already settled in Hittite times. After 1600 B.C. the Hittites overran this Arzawan territory on several occasions - one of the sons-in-law of the legendary Hittite ruler Shuppiluliuma I (1370 B.C.) was Arzawan. The name Burdur first appears in use in 1330 when the writer-traveler Ibn Battuta described a castle on a high summit overlooking the little walled town, at that time belonging to the beylik Hamid (Egridir). Burdur became an Ottoman possession under Bayazit I in 1391. In 1971 it was shaken by a violent earthquake.
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Aglasun, Turkey
(Near Burdur)
The ruins at Aglasun, called Sagalassos, date from the 3rd millennium B.C. and are located above the town at an elevation of 1,650 m.
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Burdur Gölü
Lake Burdur Gölü was once known as Askania Limnae. This massive lake at 35 km long and 9 km across supports a unique fish called Aphanius burduricus.
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Susuz Han, Turkey
(Near Burdur)
Susuz Han is home to a 13th C Seljuk caravanserai noted for its impressively ornate doorway and decorated side niches.
Great Mosque
Worth seeing in Burdur are the Seljuk bath house and the early Ottoman Ulu Cami (Great Mosque; 14th century) built by Dündar Bey.
Hacilar, Turkey
(Near Burdur)
Investigation of the prehistoric mound at Hacilar, a village about 12km/8mi southwest of Burdur, has shown it to be the site of one of the oldest human settlements so far discovered. Excavations carried out between 1957 and 1960 exposed nine levels, yielding important, very early finds from the late neolithic (level six, 5500-5400 B.C.). Below the uppermost level (a chieftain's and other houses) older fortifications were unearthed, together with evidence of a Mother-Goddess cult (finds in the Ankara and Antalya museums).
Tefenni, Turkey
(Near Burdur)
Some 70km/43mi southwest of Burdur, near Tefenni, there is an interesting Kaya Kabatmanlari rock relief of the Pisidian-Lycian horseman-deity Kabaskos (usually identified with Hercules by archeologists since, like Hercules, he is only ever armed with a club).
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