Usak Attractions
Extending southwest from the upper valley of the Gediz Çayi is a gently undulating upland region known as the Usak highlands (altitude around 1,200m/3,900ft). The name derives from the town of Usak, the provincial capital and busy commercial center of what is predominantly an agricultural region. Usak itself is attractively situated astride a small river, at the foot of Elma Dagi (Apple Mountain, 1,805m/5,924ft, northeast of the town). Well-known in the 16th and 17th centuries for its hand-woven carpets, traditional carpet manufacture is still important although more and more production is becoming factory rather than craftsman based.
In the section of the highlands west of Usak between Gediz and the Gediz fault north of Alasehir, especially around the small town of Kula (70km/43mi west), the flat upland surface is overlaid with relatively young volcanic basalt and tuff eruptions. In some places the volcanic features - craters, cinder cones, lava streams etc. - remain almost as if new. This is the Katakekaumene (Burnt Country) of the ancients. The uplands south and east of Usak, through which the valley of the Banaz Çayi carves a swathe 30m/98ft deep, terminate abruptly in cliffs which meet almost at a right angle above the upper Maeander river.
Usak itself, said to be of Seljuk origin, almost certainly stands on the site of the ancient, though not very important, Pelta. The present town, dominated by a dilapidated Byzantine citadel (Eucarpia), has few relics of the past, having been largely rebuilt in the 18th century after a fire.
In the section of the highlands west of Usak between Gediz and the Gediz fault north of Alasehir, especially around the small town of Kula (70km/43mi west), the flat upland surface is overlaid with relatively young volcanic basalt and tuff eruptions. In some places the volcanic features - craters, cinder cones, lava streams etc. - remain almost as if new. This is the Katakekaumene (Burnt Country) of the ancients. The uplands south and east of Usak, through which the valley of the Banaz Çayi carves a swathe 30m/98ft deep, terminate abruptly in cliffs which meet almost at a right angle above the upper Maeander river.
Usak itself, said to be of Seljuk origin, almost certainly stands on the site of the ancient, though not very important, Pelta. The present town, dominated by a dilapidated Byzantine citadel (Eucarpia), has few relics of the past, having been largely rebuilt in the 18th century after a fire.
