Karapinar (formerly Sultaniye) lies on the road to Adana, some 90km/56mi east of Konya. It has developed from an old winter settlement for the semi-nomads of central Anatolia and was also a staging post for pilgrims on their way to Mecca. In 1766 Carsten Niebuhr described the town as poorly built comprising a caravanserai, two rows of shops and a superb mosque with two minarets. 5km/3mi east of the town behind a roadside service area on the slopes leading to the Karacadag volcanic mountain range are a number of interesting phenomena deposited by Tertiary volcanic activity in the steppes.
Directly behind the service area the terrain opens out into a huge steep-sided volcanic crater or caldera. The water of the Gölü crater or Aci Göl is salty (65g per liter) and lies at 35m/115ft below the normal water level.
2km/1.25mi south of the service area in the middle of a number of small lava ash chimneys lies the impressive Meke Gölü (Tuzla Göl) a huge oval crater (800x500m/2,650x1,650ft) carved from black volcanic ash. Emerging from the inside of the water-filled crater is an imposing 50m/165ft black ash volcano with a 25m/80ft deep crater. The water has a high sulfur dioxide content (150g per liter).
The Meke Dagi volcano 10km/7mi southwest of the Meke Gölü stands 1,265m/6,840ft above sea level. The very steep sides (250m/820ft) dominate the surrounding landscape and the crater itself is some 100m/330ft in diameter. To the west between Meke Gölü and Meke Dagi some crescent-shaped island sand dunes up to 8m/25ft high have formed in the middle of an Ice Age lake.
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