Some places take their names from an event, a person or a mineral. Hamamözü owes its name to water. In a mountain valley at the western edge of Amasya, pressed against the border of Çorum, a warm spring rises from under the ground, and for centuries people have come to this valley looking for relief from their ailments. Some say the spring dates from the Roman era, others tell of a Seljuk bey who repaired it; whichever account is right, the thermal bath has shaped the identity of the district from beginning to end.

Hamamözü is the smallest district of Amasya by population, yet its history offers a wider frame than its size suggests. The settlement, founded in 1887 when Circassian families who had migrated from the Caucasus bought a farmstead, followed a path from village to nahiye (sub-district), from nahiye to municipality and finally, in 1991, to district status. Along that path stand the thermal baths, claims tied to the Roman and Seljuk periods, the house where an Olympic champion was born, and the karakucak wrestling matches held every August. In the account below, what is documented has been kept apart from what is rumour, and the places where sources disagree are stated openly.

Geography and Climate

Hamamözü lies in the west of Amasya, pressed against the Çorum border. Gümüşhacıköy lies to its east and north, Osmancık to the northwest, and Laçin and Çorum to the south. Its area is 204 square kilometres. Official texts give its distance from the provincial centre of Amasya as between 90 and 95 kilometres; it is 43 to 45 kilometres from Çorum and 21 to 23 kilometres from Gümüşhacıköy. These differences probably stem from the measuring point, that is, from where in the provincial centre the distance is taken.

The altitude of the district centre is given as 690 metres in official promotional texts. Another source gives 687 metres, while a figure of 640 metres is used for the thermal bath area. The İnegöl Mountains rise to the north and west, the Saray Mountains to the south and east; the 1,650-metre Eğerci Tepesi is among the most prominent points of this mountain belt. The forests of the district, which lies between Saray Mountain and İnegöl Mountain, consist mostly of pine and oak, while orchards, poplars and willows are seen in the settled areas.

The climate is transitional between the continental climate of Central Anatolia and the Black Sea climate. Winter and spring are rainy, snowfall in the district centre is light, summers are hot and dry, and winters are cold. Some sources state that the district has a straightforward Black Sea climate; the difference between the two accounts arises from the district's position where the two climate zones meet. Access is by road. Minibuses are reported to run hourly to Çorum and Gümüşhacıköy, and some of the roads leading to the district are noted to be single-lane.

The Origin of the Name

The name of the district is made up of the words "hamam" (bath) and "öz". The "hamam" part refers to the thermal bath. "Öz," in place names, is an old Turkish word that often means a small valley or stream; a note added to Sevan Nişanyan's place-name entry says that in the Kastamonu region small valleys formed by floods on hillsides were called "öz." This information makes the interpretation "valley of the bath" or "stream of the bath" plausible. The presence of the same word in the names of other settlements in the same valley, such as Sarayözü, supports the reading.

Still, this is an interpretation, and no publication has been found that ties the origin of the name to a document. The relationship between the stream running through the district centre and the bath is something local people know, but there is no written record of it. A simpler account says that the name comes from the hot-water springs of the area and the baths built over them: "hamam" stands for the healing waters and "öz" for the source of those springs. The two readings do not exclude each other; in both, the name describes the place where water and valley meet. A source based on a gazetteer of place names states that the name has been used in its present form since 1914.

The Valley's Older Layers

The district introduction of the Amasya Directorate of Culture and Tourism states that settlement in the Hamamözü valley goes back to a time even before the Hittites. The reasoning is that the valley lies close to the Hittite capital Hattusa and the ruins of Alacahöyük, and that the Kızılırmak flows very near it. The text adds that if specialists carry out the necessary archaeological investigations, many finds would come to light. This is not the result of an excavation but an inference drawn from the geographical position of the region. According to the same account, the Phrygians, the Cimmerians who came from the North Caucasus, and then the Romans were later seen in the region. That Hamamözü lies at one of the passes opening from the Black Sea region toward Central Anatolia is the geographical reason that makes such continuity plausible.

The information given about Roman traces is as follows. It is said that around the thermal bath there are a Roman-period bath structure, gravestones and inscribed stones in the walls of the old mosque. A photograph of one of the inscribed stones was taken to Greece about thirty years ago through a teacher serving in Western Thrace and was shown to specialists in Roman history. According to the translations made, in the 50s AD a person named Paros, attached to Rome, had three domed baths, or three separate baths, built, and a stone inscribed "Poros" in his name was placed in the wall of the bath; but this reading is reported only as "envisaged." The inscribed stone in the mosque courtyard is said to be the gravestone of a priest's daughter who died around AD 300. The same text also records that domes and arches were uncovered around the thermal bath and that large Roman cemeteries lie nearby. An encyclopedia entry reports this in the words "it emerged in excavations that it has been in operation since the 50s AD."

The point to note in these reports is that none of them cites a published reading of an inscription, an excavation report or a peer-reviewed article. The chain consists of a photograph, a translation and oral transmission. For this reason the sentence "it has been in use since Roman times" cannot be counted as an established date; it is the shared claim of local sources. The same encyclopedia entry writes that the history of the thermal bath is "not known exactly" and that its use since antiquity is "presumed." The remains said to be seen around the bath also need the assessment of an authorised excavation team.

For the Middle Ages, the local account reaches back to the Danishmendids. According to the district introduction, Danishmend Ahmed Gazi, a commander attached to the Great Seljuk ruler Malik-Shah, took first Tokat and then Amasya in 1075 with an army of fifty thousand, and assigned his relative Çavlı Gazi to take Çorum. When this first attempt failed because the governor of Çorum, Mastura, asked Kastamonu for help, Ahmed Gazi marched in person with a force of thirty thousand and captured the city. Osmancık was then taken and its administration given to Osman Bey of the Alayunt tribe, and Ahmed Gazi returned to Amasya by way of Hamamözü, capturing Gümüşhacıköy and Merzifon on the way. Hamamözü is mentioned on this route as a point of passage. The dates in the account do not fully match the known chronology of Danishmendid historiography; even so, it suggests that the road in this area was an old crossing between Amasya and Çorum.

The Arkut Bey Account

The name that gave the thermal bath its title is Arkut Bey, who is linked to the Seljuk period. The account of the Amasya Directorate of Culture and Tourism runs as follows: when the Seljuk sultan Kılıç Arslan put an end to the Danishmendids in 1095, he left Amasya to his son Melik Nizameddin Argun Shah, and Argun Shah placed the region under the protection of Arkut Bey, who was in his retinue. The first repair of the thermal bath was commissioned from Arkut Bey in this period, which is why the structure was called "Arkut Bey Hamamı" (Arkut Bey's Bath). An encyclopedia entry writes that the water, which until then had seeped to the surface, was turned "with the means of the day" into a bath structure with two domes, one for women and one for men. According to the same account the bath was later operated by the Ottomans as well.

The whole of this account rests on no document, and its main outline conflicts with the information in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. According to the encyclopedia, the Danishmendids ruled between 1071 and 1178; Kılıçarslan I fought the Danishmendid Gümüştegin in the early 1100s; after Gümüştegin's death in 1104 the dynasty was shaken; and its Sivas branch was eliminated by Kılıçarslan II in 1175 and its Malatya branch in 1178. The claim that the Danishmendids were ended in 1095 therefore does not fit the historical sequence. The regnal number of Kılıç Arslan also varies in the account depending on the source. Whether Argun Shah and Arkut Bey appear in other historical sources has not been verified.

There is also a duality over the period of the name. A page of a thermal bath guide says that the name "Arkıtbey" comes from Arkıt Bey, who opened the bath to operation in the Ottoman period. The name is written Arkut in some places and Arkıt or Arkıtbey in others. For this reason, accounts that call Arkut Bey a Seljuk bey are reported here as "according to tradition." Whatever the period, that the bath was repaired by a bey and that the structure is known by his name is a piece of knowledge firmly settled in local memory.

For the following centuries there is no documented roadmap. According to the account in the municipality's promotional text, "owing to natural conditions" the baths were buried underground; people who settled in the area "in 1303" found every place covered over, discovered an area where only hot-water seepages were visible, and built the bath a second time. The same text says that in later investigations works and aqueducts from those days have come into view. The date 1303 here conflicts with the official sources stating that the district was founded in 1887. It may be thought that this is a Hijri or Rumi date, since Rumi 1303 corresponds to 1887-88; but the text offers no such explanation, and this remains only a possibility.

1887: A Farmstead Becomes a Village

The documented history of the district is much more recent. According to the introduction of the Amasya Governorship, the place was a farmstead belonging to the beys İbrahim and Kamil, notables of the town of Gümüş attached to Gümüşhacıköy. In 1887, sixty households of Circassian origin who had migrated from the Caucasus and settled in Anatolia bought this land, and the village of Hamamözü was founded. This purchase is the most clearly documented event in the sources of the region. The text of the Directorate of Culture and Tourism likewise confirms that in the Ottoman period the farmstead belonged to Kamil and İbrahim beys, among the wealthy of Gümüş.

The village was first attached to the Çayköy nahiye and became the nahiye centre in 1910. The account of the district governorate states that the village remained a village for twenty-three years, from 1887 to 1910, that in 1910 it became a centre of attraction and received migration from the surrounding villages, and that it was made the nahiye centre as its population grew. According to the text of the provincial administration, the municipal organisation was established in 1972 and the settlement became a belde (small town); another source says the municipal status was granted on 20 August 1971 according to the Official Gazette. The sources do not resolve this one-year difference.

District status came with Law No. 3644, published in the Official Gazette of 20 May 1990. The organisation was set up on 5 August 1991 and the settlement was converted into a district under the name Hamamözü. Until then it had been attached to Gümüşhacıköy. It is recorded that most of those living in the villages are descendants of people who fled the massacres of the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-1878 (the "War of 93") and migrated to the interior of Anatolia, and that a large part of them came from Gümüşhane. An encyclopedia entry notes that after the war people who migrated from the Caucasus settled here and took over the management of the thermal bath. The population of the district thus formed through the merging of several groups of migrants arriving from different directions.

Population and Migration

The population table of Hamamözü is a clear example of the story of migration from countryside to city seen in many small districts of Turkey. In the 1990 census, taken at the time the district came into being, the total population was 8,303; of these, 1,557 lived in the district centre and 6,746 in the villages. In 2000 the population fell to 6,161, in 2007 to 5,264 and in 2010 to 4,508. It was recorded as 3,873 in 2015 and 3,565 in 2021. The 2024 figure is 3,567, and in the results of the 2025 address-based population registration system the district population appears as 3,628.

The most striking detail in this series is that the district centre has hardly shrunk at all. The population of the centre fluctuated between 1,400 and 1,750 for thirty years; the decline took place almost entirely in the villages. The village population fell from 6,746 in 1990 to 1,936 in 2021. That young people go to large cities to work is also noted openly in the promotional texts. In older introductions the district population is given as around 3,680, and in another text, together with its villages, as around 6,000; these differences arise from the texts having been written in different years.

The Arkut Bey Thermal Baths

The thermal bath stands in the district centre, on Kaplıca Sokağı in the Köprübaşı locality, on the Laçin road. For visitors without their own vehicle, transport is reported to be provided by Hamamözü Municipality. The old bath and the modern thermal facility are separate buildings, and both are fed from the same spring system.

Recent History of the Baths

The thermal bath, which is owned by Hamamözü Municipality, is from time to time leased by tender to private operators. The municipality's promotional text writes that the old bath "has fallen far behind meeting today's needs" and that the municipality made contact with İller Bankası in 1977. The modern thermal facilities entered service only in the 2000s. The 121-bed facility built with an İller Bankası loan was leased by tender, and two apart-hotels and two guesthouses owned by private investors completed the district's accommodation capacity. Official texts record that in 2009 hotels and guesthouses supplied hot thermal water to their guests and that this increased domestic tourism.

An encyclopedia entry describes the facility as a complex with two indoor pools, a sauna, cure pools, Turkish baths, family baths, a restaurant and a conference hall; it adds that the accommodation section has 63 rooms and 130 beds and that the old bath continues to operate. In the description in the municipality's text, the closed area of the complex is 2,000 square metres; the large pool measures 10x20 metres and is 1.45 metres deep. The district governorate describes the present facility as three-star. It should be borne in mind that the figures and the form of operation may have changed over the years.

Known Properties of the Water

The same encyclopedia entry writes that the bath has three springs, that the water falls into the group of sodium and bicarbonate waters, and that its radioactivity is 6 eman and its pH 7.4; the drinking temperature of the water is given as 17 degrees. Drawing on Avşaroğlu's guide of 1968, the entry gives the temperature as 38 degrees. The texts of the municipality and the culture ministry's portal, by contrast, show the outflow temperature as 42.5 degrees. According to a laboratory analysis dated 1989, the water is sodium bicarbonate, calcium-bearing, hyperthermal and oligometallic; another source places it in the "sodium bicarbonate and calcium chloride" group. This disagreement in the figures may have arisen from the date of the analysis, the point of measurement or the spring itself.

The sources write that the water is "believed" to be beneficial as a bath for rheumatic diseases, neuralgia and neuritis, women's ailments and skin problems, and as a drinking cure for stomach and intestinal complaints. The list in the municipality's text also includes headings such as mobility after fractures and dislocations, paralysis, lumbar disc herniation and sciatica, and cardiovascular disorders. These are statements reflecting traditional belief and promotion; they cannot be counted as a medical assessment, and anyone considering a cure for any illness should first consult a physician.

Operating Schedule

The municipality's undated introduction states that the old bath serves with separate sections for women and men between 04.00 in the morning and midnight, that in summer the sections are switched between 13.00 and 18.00 except on Sundays, and that a peştamal (bath wrap), a large towel and a head towel are issued at entry. That this arrangement still holds today has not been verified; for prices and session information one should apply to the district municipality.

Life in Hamamözü

The livelihood of the district's people is farming and animal husbandry. The number of those engaged in trade and of civil servants and workers in public and private workplaces is low; the inadequacy of agriculture and the absence of an industrial zone have kept trade from developing. The district governorate writes that, with new apple orchards planted in recent years, the cultivation of the Amasya misket apple has begun to come to the fore. Tourism income from the thermal bath contributes to the district economy; in the summer months the population rises with domestic tourism, which in turn feeds the guesthouse trade. The district centre has an agricultural credit cooperative, a branch of the chamber of agriculture and a branch of the agricultural bank. Drinking water and sewerage in the centre are complete, and all villages have electricity and a drinking-water network.

It is recorded that the district has four neighbourhoods and 17 villages and that a municipality exists only in the centre. Another district introduction speaks of a total of 18 villages and names Alanköy, Arpadere, Aşağıovacık, Çayköy, Damladere, Dedeköy, Göçeri, Gölköy, Hıdırlar, Kızılcaören, Mağaraobruğu, Omarca, Sarayözü, Tekçam, Tepeköy, Yemişen, Yeniköy and Yukarıovacık. The list contains eighteen names; the reason for the difference is not explained in the sources. Four of the villages (Arpadere, Tekçam, Tepeköy, Yukarıovacık) have a scattered settlement pattern, the others a compact layout.

Nature and Picnic Areas

The district introduction lists Omarca Çamlığı, eight kilometres from the centre, and Kuştepe in the centre as picnic areas. It adds that the highland pastures of the Saray Mountains are worth seeing, that the Yeniköy irrigation pond, thirteen kilometres from the centre, is suitable for fishing, and that a trout facility operates in the village of Yukarıovacık. Another district introduction mentions the Tavşandağı highland pastures and the Kayadüzü highland pasture. These areas, surrounded by pine and oak forests, are places that visitors to the district stop at outside the thermal season as well.

The Wrestling Hearth

When Hamamözü is mentioned, wrestling comes to mind alongside the thermal water. The text of the district governorate says that the first things that come to mind at the mention of Hamamözü are the thermal water and the world-champion national wrestler Hamit Kaplan and his coach Adil Candemir. A third name, İsmail Topçam, is added to these two; every year Hamamözü Municipality organises events in the names of the former national wrestlers registered in the district's population, Hamit Kaplan, Adil Candemir and İsmail Topçam. Karakucak wrestling matches and cultural events are held in August, and many participants come from neighbouring provinces and districts. The street on which the district governorate stands also bears Adil Candemir's name.

An encyclopedia text uses the phrase "world champion and Olympic runner-up" for Adil Candemir and mentions him as Hamit Kaplan's maternal uncle and coach. A detailed table of results has not been verified in this study.

Hamit Kaplan

Hamit Kaplan was born on 20 September in Hamamözü. His year of birth appears in the sources as 1933 or 1934; the Turkish encyclopedia text gives 1933 in one place and 1934 in the information box. He was 1.90 metres tall and weighed about 100 kilograms. In his youth he began with oil wrestling, and soon afterwards, with the help of his maternal uncle and coach Adil Candemir, he moved to mat wrestling. He became Turkish champion in the heavyweight class among juniors and did his military service in the Naval Forces Wrestling Team. He wrestled in both freestyle and Greco-Roman styles. In 1954 he was selected for the national team; coaches such as Nuri Boytorun and Celal Atik are mentioned among those who brought him to the top. At the age of 22 he represented Turkey for the first time at a world championship and won a bronze medal in Karlsruhe.

His style was defensive, and his massive build supported it. This showed itself again when the draw rule was introduced in 1957: since then no top-level wrestler has drawn as often as Kaplan. At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, in freestyle heavyweight, he beat the American William Kerslake 2-1 in the first round, then defeated the Indian Lila Ram in the second round and the Iranian Hüseyin Nuri in the third by fall. After receiving a bye in the fourth round, he beat the Finn Taisto Kangasniemi by fall in the fifth round to reach the final; in the final he beat Hüseyin Mehmedov, who competed for Bulgaria, 3-0 and became Olympic champion. In the same tournament he had finished fourth in Greco-Roman style. In 1957, at the world championship in Istanbul, he won a gold medal.

In the following years he collected medals at world championships, the Mediterranean Games and Balkan championships; he also won medals at the 1960 Rome and 1964 Tokyo Olympics (some sources give silver in 1960 and bronze in 1964). The Turkish encyclopedia text writes that in 115 national appearances he won 15 gold, 11 silver and 6 bronze medals, a total of 32 European, world and Olympic medals. Official district texts and the press, however, say "he wore the national singlet 175 times"; no source has been found that resolves the difference between the two numbers. After the 1964 Olympics he gave up wrestling and ran a restaurant in Düzce. On 5 January 1976 he died at the age of 41 in a traffic accident in Çorum and was buried in his hometown of Hamamözü. In September 2011 he was admitted to the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame.

His memory is kept alive in the district. His mud-brick house was converted into a museum by the district municipality in 2012; a middle school in Hamamözü and a sports hall in Amasya bear his name. A documentary titled "Pehlivan," prepared through the joint work of the Hamamözü District Governorate and the municipality and drawing also on the TRT archive, reached viewers on 5 January 2023, the 47th anniversary of his death. On the 50th anniversary of his death, in January 2026, he was commemorated at his graveside.

Notes for Visitors

Access to Hamamözü is by road; there are minibus services from Gümüşhacıköy and Çorum, and for those arriving in their own vehicle some stretches of road are single-lane. Since the thermal bath and the thermal facility are in the district centre, everything can be reached on foot. In the summer months the district becomes crowded with the effect of domestic tourism; those who want a quieter visit may prefer the off-season. After the thermal bath one can go on to Omarca Çamlığı, Kuştepe and the highland pastures of the Saray Mountains. If the wrestling festival coincides with a visit in August, it is also possible to see Hamit Kaplan's house and grave. Opening hours and prices change from year to year and should be asked about beforehand.

Contradictions Among the Sources

  • Temperature of the thermal water: one encyclopedia entry gives 38 degrees, the municipality and ministry texts give 42.5 degrees.
  • Altitude: 690 m (official introductions), 687 m (a geographic data source), 640 m (the thermal bath area).
  • Municipal status: 1972 (text of the provincial administration) versus 20 August 1971 (a source based on the Official Gazette).
  • Period of Arkut Bey: Seljuk (account of the directorate of culture and tourism) versus Ottoman (a thermal bath guide).
  • Number of villages: 17 versus 18.
  • Hamit Kaplan's year of birth: 1933 versus 1934; number of national appearances: 175 versus 115.
  • Distance of the district centre to Amasya: 90 versus 95 km.

Chronology

50s AD (claim): Construction of a Roman-period bath according to the Directorate of Culture and Tourism, based on a reading of an inscription; there is no documented excavation report.

1075 (local account): Danishmend Ahmed Gazi's campaigns against Tokat, Amasya and Çorum; Hamamözü is mentioned on the route.

1095 (tradition): The date linked to the period in which Arkut Bey repaired the bath; it does not match the TDV sources.

1887: Sixty Circassian households from the Caucasus buy the farmstead and found the village of Hamamözü.

1910: The village becomes a nahiye centre.

1914: The name has been used in the same form since this date.

1956: Hamit Kaplan wins a gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics.

1957: Kaplan wins a gold medal at the world championship in Istanbul.

1972 (in another source 20 August 1971): The municipality is established.

5 January 1976: Hamit Kaplan dies in a traffic accident in Çorum.

1977: The municipality contacts İller Bankası about a modern thermal facility.

20 May 1990: District status is gained through Law No. 3644.

5 August 1991: The organisation is set up and Hamamözü becomes a district.

2000s: The modern thermal facility enters service.

2011: Hamit Kaplan is admitted to the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame.

2012: Hamit Kaplan's house is converted into a museum.

5 January 2023: The documentary "Pehlivan" is released.

5 January 2026: The 50th anniversary of Kaplan's death is commemorated.

Sources

Academic studies

  • TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, entries "Kılıcarslan I" and "Dânişmendliler" (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr).

Official sources

  • T.C. Amasya Valiliği, "Hamamözü" ilçe tanıtımı (amasya.gov.tr). amasya.gov.tr
  • T.C. Hamamözü Kaymakamlığı, "Hamamözü" (hamamozu.gov.tr). hamamozu.gov.tr
  • Amasya İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü, "Hamamözü" (amasya.ktb.gov.tr).
  • T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, Türkiye Kültür Portalı, "Hamamözü Arkut Bey Kaplıcaları" (kulturportali.gov.tr). kulturportali.gov.tr

Other sources

  • Güncan, Özlem. "Hamamözü Kaplıcaları." Online Türkiye Turizm Ansiklopedisi, 2020 (turkiyeturizmansiklopedisi.com); Avşaroğlu, M. (1968). Termalizm ve Klimatizm I, s. 30, cited therein. turkiyeturizmansiklopedisi.com
  • Hamamözü Milli Eğitim Müdürlüğü, "Hamamözü İlçemiz".
  • Termal Rehber, "Hamamözü (Arkut Bey) Kaplıcası" and "Arkıtbey Kaplıcası" (termalrehber.com).
  • Vikipedi, "Hamamözü" and "Hamit Kaplan"; Wikipedia, "Hamamözü District" and "Hamit Kaplan". tr.wikipedia.org
  • Nufusu.com, "Hamamözü Nüfusu" (reproduction of TÜİK ADNKS 2025 data).
  • Fotomaç, "Dünya ve Olimpiyat Şampiyonu Hamit Kaplan, vefatının 50. yılında anıldı", 5 January 2026.
  • Sevan Nişanyan, Turkish place-name dictionary entry (nisanyan1.blogspot.com).

Online sources