Lake and waterfall Tortum Golu description and photos - Turkey: Erzurum (Topic)

Lake and waterfall Tortum Golu description and photos - Turkey: Erzurum. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Tortum Golu.

Photo and description

Turkey, in terms of water tourism, has great, and at the same time, a very unique potential. Turkey's rivers are fed mainly by rain and melting snow. This means that the peak of the flood occurs at the end of winter and at the beginning of spring. The ideal time to visit and pass rivers in southern Turkey is early April. But since the amount of rain and snow is a fickle phenomenon, the level of rivers at the same time of the year can be radically different. For the rivers of Northern and Eastern Turkey, the best time for rafting is the beginning of May.

The historical province of Tao-Klarjeti, which once belonged to neighboring Georgia, is now located on the territory of Turkey, therefore, there are many monuments of ancient Georgian architecture.

Lake Tortum is also located in this area, on the way to the Ishkhani Cathedral. Tortum Selalezi is a huge lake eight kilometers (five miles) long and one kilometer wide. The lake is "cut" on all sides by mountain cliffs, and was formed by a giant landslide, which blocked the northern exit from the valley. Most likely, this happened towards the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000-15,000 years ago, but some local residents say that their ancestors remember the cataclysm that happened, and are sure that the lake is no more than 250 years old.

The water in the lake, even on a sunny day, has a milky beige, dirty green or gray dull color, so only daredevils swim there, and the local population uses the rocky coast near the village of Balaklky as beaches, as well as the end of the peninsula located in eight kilometers north of the secondary road, leading to Yoshk Bank. Near the lake there is a cozy restaurant where you can have a good lunch after visiting the nearby church.

If you drive twelve kilometers north from the turn to Yoshk Bank along a secondary road, you can get to the waterfalls of Tortum. The Turkish Electric Company (TEK) has built an artificial dam with a turbine on a natural dam. When you see the hydroelectric power station, turn off onto the road marked with the sign "Tortum Selalesi". After driving another kilometer, you will see on the left a large rock with a 48-meter cascade. The spurs of the Ditlu, Aksek and Kara ranges, located below the waterfalls, squeeze their embrace, thereby narrowing the valley and turning it into a beautiful canyon.

The road along the lake begins to gain height, and goes to a small local pass of 1150 m. From here there is a wonderful view of the lake - as if the green water is in a bowl of gray-yellow layered rocks. The colors are all very contrasting. And on the other side of the pass opens a river delta, cutting into the sandy shore, and a long road along the winding ribbon of the river.

There is a narrow road in front of the hydroelectric power station. It passes in the northern part of the lake, turns left and leads to the Tortum Kayi waterfalls, which offer stunning views. This falls from fifty meters (164 feet) into the shallow waters below. The landslide that created Tortum Golu also influenced the emergence of small lakes surrounded by rock debris, which contain countless trout. Falling, the water captures large masses of air, so there is always a strong moist wind in the crevice under the waterfall.

Lake Tortum and Tortum waterfall annually attract hundreds of tourists. It is best to go to these parts in spring, because in summer the hydroelectric power station takes almost all the water for its needs. During the season, the lake is a very visited and crowded place - fishing, catamarans rental, camping, while in summer there is silence and solitude.

We also recommend reading Church of Alexy, the Man of God description and photo - Russia - Moscow: Moscow

Topic: Lake and waterfall Tortum Golu description and photos - Turkey: Erzurum.