Architecture / Historic street and neighborhood
Kemaliye (Eğin) Historic Town
Kemaliye, Erzincan
A historic town added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 2021, with stone-and-timber houses leaning against the steep slope of the Karasu valley like an amphitheater, stepped stone streets and terraced gardens.
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Its story
The town, formerly called Eğin, was founded at the foot of rocky cliffs on the western slope of the deep valley carved by the Karasu, a tributary of the Euphrates. 19th-century travelers described Eğin with its stone houses set among terraced gardens, arranged on the slope like an amphitheater, and its streets with rock-cut stairs. Connected to İstanbul in the Ottoman period through the meat and charcoal trade, and known for its emigrant workers and its Eğin manis (folk quatrains) full of longing, the town was renamed Kemaliye in 1922. It is said that on the doors of the two- to four-story houses, with stone ground floors and wooden upper floors, female and male visitors could be distinguished by knockers that made different sounds. The historic town was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 2021. Walking the narrow streets and the views stretching through the bazaar and mansions to the valley are the most enjoyable part of the visit.
Key facts
- Period
- Ottoman-period traditional residential fabric
- Admission
- Open area
- Getting there
- Kemaliye district center, about 150 km from Erzincan
- Visit duration
- 2–3 hours
Trip purpose
- Photography
- Quiet
- Hiking
Location
39.26083, 38.49667
Where to eat nearby
No food & drink venues listed nearby.
Map data: © OpenStreetMap contributors; Overture Maps
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Source: Web derlemesi (doğrulanmalı): https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemaliye | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemaliye | https://goturkiye.com/erzincan/see | https://turkisharchaeonews.net/article/historical-town-kemaliye-and-medieval-churches-and-monasteries-midyat-and-tur-abdin-plateau