Travelling east from Amasya, in the direction the Yeşilırmak cuts its way through the valley, the mountains slowly draw back and the plain opens out. On one side of the road lie beech and pine forests, on the other fields of okra and onions. Taşova stands where these two landscapes meet. It was never an old fortress town or a dynastic seat; it grew instead as a place of passage, where forest and plain, Tokat and Amasya, village and small town overlap. Its status as a district dates only from 1944, and for most of its history the settlement was a small village, yet the valley it sits in has sheltered people for thousands of years.

The Geography of the District

Taşova is one of the districts of Amasya set in the Yeşilırmak valley, in the Central Black Sea region. It borders Erbaa in Tokat to the east, Amasya's central district and Ladik in Samsun to the west, Çarşamba and Asarcık in Samsun to the north, and Turhal in Tokat to the south. Official promotional texts give the distance from the district centre to the provincial capital as 50 km. Sources diverge on the surface area: a figure of 971 km2, based on the General Directorate of Mapping, circulates alongside the 1,051 km2 given in the governorate's district profile. The altitude shows a similar gap, with figures of 241 and 230 metres for the district centre. According to official data the lowest point is 170 metres, where the Karlık Stream joins the Yeşilırmak, and the highest is Cami Tepesi, south of Esençay village, at 1,956 metres. The mountains include Engüles in the west, Canik in the northeast, Boğalı (about 1,950 m) in the south and Akdağ (about 2,050 m) in the northwest.

The land distribution shows why the district rests on two different economies. About 392 thousand decares of farmland are matched by nearly 520 thousand decares of forest and scrub, to which are added 62 thousand decares of meadow, pasture and highland and 77 thousand decares of non-agricultural land. Irrigated farming is practised on about 127 thousand decares of the arable land. The strip of roughly 4,000 decares along the Yeşilırmak, from the district centre to its confluence with the Kelkit Stream, is described in official texts as a small Çukurova because of its low altitude and fertile soil. The Akınoğlu, Boraboy, Destek and Dutluk streams feed the Yeşilırmak, while the Esençay Stream joins the river within the borders of Erbaa.

Climate and Vegetation

A transitional climate prevails in the district. It is generally mild, showing at times the character of the Black Sea and at times the continental character of Central Anatolia. Summers are hot and dry; winters are mild and rainy in the district centre and cold and rainy at higher elevations. The highest recorded temperature is 40.2 degrees. The forests contain beech, oak, elm and several pine species. This variety has made it possible to grow vegetables and okra on the valley floor while livestock herding and forestry continue in the highland villages.

Population

In tables based on Turkish Statistical Institute data, the population of Taşova district appears as 36,818 in 1945, 58,960 in 1975 and 57,050 in 2000. By 2007 it had fallen to 35,186. The sources examined do not explain this sharp drop, and no document could be found that says whether district boundaries or affiliated settlements changed. In later years the population hovered between 30 and 31 thousand, standing at 30,123 in 2021 (11,119 in the town and 19,469 in rural areas). Figures of 30,348 for 2024 and 30,034 for 2025 have been published. A census cited in the official profile gives the district population as 31,508, of whom 11,098 live in the centre and 20,410 in the villages, a density of 29 people per square kilometre. The district has 63 villages.

A Long History of Settlement

The district's identity is relatively new, but the settlement is old. The history texts of the governorate and the district governorate state that remains of settlement dating to 5000 BC have been found within the district. According to the same texts, the region fell in turn under the control of the Hittites, Phrygians, Cimmerians, Persians, Romans, Byzantines, Seljuks and Ottomans. The account of the Directorate of Culture and Tourism is more detailed: when the Hittites came to dominate Anatolia around 1650 BC, Taşova and its surroundings came under their administration. The Phrygians (1200-700 BC) and Cimmerians followed, the Median Empire ended the Cimmerians and settled in the region, and the area passed to Persian rule under the Persian king Artaxerxes III (given in the source as Adaşir III). With Alexander the Great's Anatolian campaign in 331 BC it came under Macedonian administration, and when the Macedonian kingdom broke up the Kingdom of Pontus was founded in 291 BC. Pontic rule lasted until Amasya was joined to Rome. The same account mentions Julius Caesar's defeat of the Pontic king Pharnaces in 47 BC and the Romans' full annexation of the region in AD 25.

Roman rule lasted until 395, after which the region remained under Byzantine control for a long time. According to this account the Umayyads took Taşova in 712; another text adds that the settlement later returned to Byzantine rule. The arrival of the Turks in Anatolia began with the Battle of Manzikert (26 August 1071). The sources write that for two centuries after the battle, Turkish tribes migrating from Khorasan and Transoxiana settled in towns and cities. Taşova passed into Danishmendid hands in 1075, and the Danishmend ruler Melik Gazi's capture of the area made Amasya a centre of Turkish-Islamic culture. Under Kılıçarslan II in 1174 the sovereignty of the Anatolian Seljuks began. It is also recorded that in this period the region suffered attacks by the Empire of Trebizond.

After the Battle of Köse Dağ the area came under the sway of the Mongol invasion, famine and disorder broke out, and the Babai revolt had an effect in the region. According to the text, the Seljuk state divided the country in two to prevent unrest, Taşova remained within the Rûm Province, and its administration was left to Seyfettin Torumtay. After the dissolution of the Seljuk state, first the state of Kadı Burhaneddin and then the Tacettinoğulları ruled the area until 1425. In that year Çelebi Mehmed ended the Tacettinoğulları principality and brought Taşova into Ottoman lands. In the Ottoman period the settlement was organised as a village attached to the Sanjak of Tokat, and this did not change until the end of the empire.

The official history texts also note a serious loss: a large share of the remains of past civilisations was destroyed by indiscriminate illegal digging. Finds from the region are displayed in the Amasya and Alpaslan museums. For the years of the Turkish War of Independence, the account of the Directorate of Culture and Tourism reports that villages around Taşova suffered attacks by armed bands, that the people armed themselves and resisted, and that after the success of the War of Independence military forces were sent to the area and order was restored. This account is an official promotional text; no independent academic study giving the details of these events could be found.

From Yemişenbükü to Taşova

From the early years of the Republic until 1944, the present district centre was attached to the Erbaa district of Tokat under the name Yemişenbükü. According to the district governorate's text, Yemişenbükü was founded by a small tribe belonging to the Turkish clans who came to Anatolia. Another source writes that the village was attached to the Sonusa subdistrict of Erbaa. An interpretation also circulates that the name derives from the abundance of fruit orchards in the area; no document confirming this has been found. In 1944 it was a small settlement of about 60 households and 350 people.

The Founding of the District

By decision no. 4448 of the Council of Ministers, dated 4 August 1944, Taşova became an independent district. This date is shared by the history texts of the official institutions. Another compilation ties the creation of the district to law no. 4642 of 1 September 1944; the difference between the two accounts could not be resolved. In 1953 the district was attached to Amasya, on the grounds of the difficulty of reaching Tokat and the delay of services.

According to local accounts, the earthquakes of 1939 (Erzincan) and 1942 (Niksar-Erbaa) played a large part in the founding of the district. In the aftermath, İzzettin Çağpar, the governor of Tokat, who was working to reorganise the region, wanted to establish a new centre that could bring state services more easily to forest villages far from the provincial and district seats. Hasan Aykan, the subdistrict director, helped him in this effort because he knew the region well, and Koca Fatma Darıcı, headwoman of Yemişenbükü, also contributed to the decision to found the new district there. According to local sources Aykan acted for a time as deputy district governor and was appointed the first mayor on 1 July 1945; the list of mayors places him in office in 1944-1946. According to the same list the first district governor was Celal Gurmen (1944-1947). Part of this information rests on local historical studies and should therefore not be regarded as firm documentation but read as sourced reporting.

A notable feature of Taşova's founding is that a small village was turned into a district centre by means of a zoning plan rather than being left to grow without one. According to local historical studies the plan was drawn up by the architect Ali Rasim Cengiz, with a broad main avenue, designed under the name Samsun Street, at its axis. Houses, public buildings, the market and the Tekel (state monopoly) facilities were laid out around this axis. That İzzettin Çağpar's name was given to one of the district's main streets shows that his role at the founding remains alive in local memory.

The Story of the Name

Two different explanations circulate for the origin of the name Taşova. The official texts write that it comes from the fertile area formed by the valleys of Destek, Uluköy, Esençay, Tekke and the Yeşilırmak. A local account holds instead that the governor Çağpar gave the name, and that it stands together for the quarry in the Herizdağı area and the plain watered by the Yeşilırmak. No document could be found to settle which is correct.

Alpaslan Village and Seyyid Nurettin

One of the settlements that sheds light on the district's early periods is Alpaslan village. According to the Directorate of Culture and Tourism, Seyyid Nurettin, a member of the Rifai order who came from Khorasan, settled in present-day Alpaslan in 1257 and founded a lodge and a pious endowment. Influential in the Turkification of the region and in the spiritual education of its people, this endowment continued its activity until 1901. Some accounts also give his name as Seyyid Nureddin Alparslan. The lodge is known today as the Seyyid Nurettin Tekke, and the official text notes that it awaits repair. In the Ottoman period the village was called Zuday; local sources explain the name as having evolved from the forms Zito and Zedvi. The village took the name Alpaslan in the early 1960s.

The Alpaslan Municipal Museum in the village is housed in a bathhouse surviving from the Ottoman period. According to an entry in a tourism encyclopedia, the museum's inventory book has an entry dated 1958, most of the artefacts were collected in 1964, the bathhouse was arranged as a museum in 1991, and the museum entered service as a municipal museum in 1994. Its founder, Muttalip Öztürk, bought with his own money the objects that villagers were selling to a scrap dealer. The display includes coins, jugs, jewellery and gravestones of the Hellenistic, Pontic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman periods; the door and sarcophagus of the tomb built in the name of Seyyid Nurettin, together with his endowment deed, are in the same collection. The district's official profile also notes that Taşova has no museum of its own and that the old district prison building is waiting to be turned into one.

Lake Boraboy

The most often mentioned natural spot in Taşova is Lake Boraboy. In travel writing it is frequently called a crater lake, and some official promotional texts use the same description. According to municipal and encyclopedia entries that give the same account, however, Boraboy is a landslide-dammed lake; its water did not collect in a volcanic crater.

As the story goes, a large landslide around Kaleboynu Hill cut off the flow of the Çatağın Stream and the accumulating water formed the lake. The tuff and agglomerate rocks of the area are said to have slid because of water seeping along weak zones created by the North Anatolian Fault. A concrete weir was built on top of the landslide dam so that the dam would not burst in floods and so that irrigation would be possible. Through the gate system on the weir, excess water raised by rain or sudden snowmelt is released. The lake's water is fresh and the overflow runs off through the Boraboy Stream; the water level rises in spring with snowmelt and falls in summer with diminishing rainfall and agricultural irrigation.

Measurements and Differences Between Sources

The lake lies about 22 to 25 kilometres northwest of the district centre. Its distance from the provincial capital, Amasya, is given as about 62 km. Measurements vary from source to source. In the account based on academic studies, the length is about 750 metres, the width up to 100 metres in the east and 200 metres in the west, the greatest depth 11 metres and the altitude 1,045 metres; the surface area is about 11 hectares. The provincial promotional text gives a length of 900 metres, a width of 250 metres, a depth of 30 metres and an altitude of 1,050 metres. The first set of measurements has been adopted because it rests on academic studies.

Protection Status and Visiting

The area was declared a tourism centre in 1992, gained third-degree natural site status in 1996 and was registered as a nature park on 3 September 2013. It is managed by the 11th Regional Directorate of the General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks. The plan divides the area into three zones: 75 percent sensitive protection, 15 percent controlled use and 10 percent sustainable use. Scots pine grows on the northern slopes, and beech and hornbeam forest on the southern slopes; the area is said to include endemic plant species such as Campanula latiloba and Digitalis lamarckii. Carp and wels catfish live in the lake, and a seasonal diversity of waterbirds has also been recorded.

The first simple facilities were built in the 1970s, and in 2017 about 70 thousand people visited the area (another record gives 73,806). Today there are picnic areas, walking trails, viewing terraces, children's playgrounds, a camping area, bungalow-style lodging and pedal boats. Cool in summer and snowy in winter, the lake draws weekend visitors from neighbouring provinces. The rising number of visitors has created a serious burden: picnic waste, picking flowers and stripping bark damage the vegetation, and landslips caused by heavy use are degrading the walking paths. Area management responds with measures such as setting a visitor capacity, alternative routes and environmental education. Because entry hours and fees can change, current information should be checked in the announcements of the General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks.

The Flower Okra

The most famous product from Taşova's gardens is a vegetable no bigger than a fingertip. Amasya Flower Okra (Amasya Çiçek Bamyası) was registered by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office on 29 May 2018 as an appellation of origin under number 352. The application was made on 21 April 2016, and the registration was made in the name of the Amasya Provincial Directorate of Food, Agriculture and Livestock. According to the document, the production area comprises the Central, Taşova and Göynücek districts of Amasya, Erbaa in Tokat, and Mecitözü, Osmancık and Kargı in Çorum. Okra does not belong to Taşova alone; but among the areas where it is grown the document explicitly names the alluvial lands along the Yeşilırmak and its tributaries (the Çekerek, Tozanlı and Destek streams), that is, Taşova and its surroundings and Göynücek and its surroundings.

The Meaning of "Flower"

According to the document, the product takes this name because the fruit is picked after flowering, before it has fully developed. Because of its green stem with red stripes, the plant is also called red leg (kızıl bacak) in the region. The fruit is light green, small and only slightly hairy; its average length is given as about 1 cm. The growing period lasts 125 to 135 days, and the harvest runs from the second half of June to the end of October. Flower okra is picked daily, strung on thread, dried in the shade and stored for winter. A producer quoted in Sofra magazine describes the hardship of picking this way: okra is hairy and pricks the hand, in the past it was picked bare-handed and fingers became sore, today it is picked with gloves.

History and Festival

The registration document rests on two historical records. The first is the entry in an Ottoman work written in 1893 that 975 okka (about 1,250 kg, in the document's wording) of okra were produced in Amasya. The second is that in 1901 Amasya okra was sent to Istanbul, to the palace. The Taşova Flower Okra Culture and Arts Festival, first held by Taşova Municipality in 1994 for promotional purposes, is also mentioned in the document; the festival takes place every year.

Meat and Flower Okra Dish

The cooked form of the okra has been the subject of a separate registration. According to Sofra magazine, the Amasya Meat and Flower Okra Dish (Amasya Etli Çiçek Bamyası Yemeği) received a geographical indication in 2021 under number 953; the registration is in the name of the Yeşilırmak Basin Development Union. According to the recipe in the registration, the dish contains cubed lamb, butter, dry onion, tomato, garlic, lemon juice and salt. The stem of the okra is not cut off completely; the tip is trimmed into a cone and the okra is cooked whole. The meat is first sautéed in butter, onion and tomato are added, once the meat is tender lemon juice and water are poured in, and the okra goes in last. It is not stirred much so that it does not break, and is cooked about 30 minutes over low heat. If dried okra is used, the hairs are removed by rubbing it in a cloth together with its string. According to the same article, an application for a European Union geographical indication for flower okra and Misket apple was also made in March 2025; the outcome could not be verified.

From Tobacco to Onions: The Evolution of the Economy

The district's economic history follows a long line in which agricultural production led to the tobacco trade, the tobacco trade to Tekel investments, and these in turn to urbanisation and finally to small-scale industry. According to a local compilation, 1944 is the moment when the existing economic potential began to be organised around an administrative centre; agriculture, tobacco, livestock, forest products and trade with surrounding settlements in the Yeşilırmak basin were already there before 1944. Tobacco was a product known in neighbouring markets even before the district was founded, and in the early years of the Republic it counted as a strategic crop for state revenue and foreign trade.

Soon after the district was founded, temporary tobacco warehouses were opened in Taşova, the Tekel monopoly organisation began operating on 10 April 1945, and that same year about 1 million kilograms of tobacco were bought from the district. Tekel was not merely an institution that bought: it organised the marketing, storage and transport of the product, created demand for labour, expanded the tradesmen's and commercial volume, and drew public investment into the district. In 1946 the Tekel General Directorate began work on an administrative building and tobacco warehouse for Erbaa, Niksar and Taşova; the facilities built on about 21 donums in Taşova were completed in 1949. Besides the warehouses, the administrative building, a sales point and staff housing were part of this complex. Additional warehouses were built in 1977, and a leaf tobacco processing plant opened in 1985.

This activity is reflected in the figures. According to local records, in 1946 the centre had 195 households, 65 shops, 3 restaurants, 1 bakery, 2 coffeehouses and 4 tobacco warehouses, and its population was about 1,100. In 1949 the number of households rose to 355, the population to about 1,800 and the number of shops to 112, and the bakeries to two. Census figures point the same way: in the tables the population of the district centre is 796 in 1945, 1,582 in 1950 and 2,268 in 1955. The main causes of this growth were the establishment of the district organisation, the settling of public institutions and the commercial vitality Tekel created. The arrival of civil servants, tradesmen and people from other regions in the new district sped up urbanisation. A 1954 work titled Resimli Amasya Tarım, Coğrafya, Salname-Kılavuz ve Kazalar is cited as a source showing that, within ten years of the founding, the economic and social structure of the district had taken shape.

Entrepreneurs and Haulage

The carrying of tobacco to the Tekel warehouses, and in later years of sugar beet and other products to market, developed trucking and haulage. In local historical studies the leading representative of this field is Hacıbekir Yüksel. From the 1950s Yüksel was engaged in forest tenders, railway sleeper production, and tobacco and sugar beet transport, and later moved into cinema, glassware, spare parts, tyre dealing and fuel stations. His path is recounted as a typical example of how capital moved from one sector to another in a small district.

Agriculture and Industry Today

With the end of Tekel's operations and the decline of the tobacco economy, a gap opened in the district's traditional structure. Today agriculture continues through onions, okra and grain. According to the same compilation, about 32,000 tonnes of onions are produced yearly on about 16,000 decares in the district; Uluköy is one of the important onion-growing areas. The geographical indication status of the onion could not be verified. The harvesting, storage, transport and marketing of onions also create activity in the haulage and trade branches.

Industrialisation has come through the gradual growth of small businesses based on agriculture and natural resources, and large factories have not appeared. The Taşova Small Industrial Estate began operating in 1993; according to the Amasya Provincial Environmental Status Report, it has 117 workplaces on 66,966 m2, of which 105 appear occupied. The provincial report of the Ministry of Industry and Technology states that the estate is completely full, that there are requests for new workplaces, and that because room for expansion is limited the district needs a new industrial area. The founding protocol of the Taşova Organised Industrial Zone was approved on 17 July 2023, with an area of about 79 hectares envisaged. A furniture business founded in 2004 is cited in local sources as an example, providing direct employment for about 160 people and supplying its stores in Amasya and Erbaa from a 20,000 m2 production facility.

Places to Visit

Taşova is not a district that revolves around a single monument. A visit is built on nature, highlands and villages.

  • Lake Boraboy Nature Park: About 22-25 km northwest of the district centre. Details above.
  • Alpaslan Village and Municipal Museum: In the building that was converted from a bathhouse to a museum, finds from the periods from the Hellenistic to the Ottoman are displayed. The official text notes that the Seyyid Nurettin Tekke awaits repair.
  • Baraklı Waterfall: Within the borders of Özbaraklı. A local news report writes that the waterfall lies on the historic Silk Road, near an old castle and dungeons going back to the Roman period, with a cave under site protection right beside it. This information rests only on the news report; no archaeological confirmation could be found.
  • Esençay Şahin Highland: Here there is an artificial lake for tourism and irrigation, 200 m long, 80 m wide and 12 m deep, made in cooperation with the Amasya Special Provincial Administration. There are also irrigation ponds in the villages of Uluköy, Kırkharman and Kızgüldüren.
  • Boğalı Highland: A highland where events are held in summer.

Some travel guides also list structures such as the Waterfall Church and the Kızgüldüren Church. However, since the official history sources (district governorate, Directorate of Culture and Tourism) contain no description or date for these structures, no details have been attributed to them.

Getting There and When to Visit

Taşova is about 50 km from the provincial capital, Amasya. Boraboy can be reached by the Amasya-Taşova road or through the Ladik district of Samsun; those coming from the direction of Tokat use the same Amasya-Taşova route. July-October, the okra harvest, is the best time to see the fields and the drying work; the date of the Flower Okra Festival is announced locally each year. Boraboy is cool in summer and snowy in winter and can get crowded on summer weekends. Because highland and village roads can become slippery in wet weather, road conditions should be checked before setting out. Opening hours at small places such as the Alpaslan Museum can change from year to year, so it is sensible to ask in advance.

Chronology

5000 BC: Traces of settlement in the district, according to the official histories.

c. 1650 BC: Hittite rule (Directorate of Culture and Tourism).

291 BC: Founding of the Kingdom of Pontus.

AD 25: Rome fully annexes the region (Directorate of Culture and Tourism).

1071: Battle of Manzikert.

1075: The area passes to the Danishmendids.

1174: Rule of the Anatolian Seljuks under Kılıçarslan II.

1257: Seyyid Nurettin settles in Alpaslan.

1425: Çelebi Mehmed ends the Tacettinoğulları, and the region joins the Ottoman state.

1923-1944: Yemişenbükü is attached to Erbaa.

4 August 1944: Taşova becomes an independent district by decision no. 4448.

10 April 1945: The Tekel organisation begins operating in Taşova (local compilation).

1953: The district is detached from Tokat and attached to Amasya.

1993: The Taşova Small Industrial Estate begins operating.

1994: First Taşova Flower Okra Culture and Arts Festival.

3 September 2013: Lake Boraboy is registered as a nature park.

29 May 2018: Registration of Amasya Flower Okra under number 352.

2021: Registration of the Amasya Meat and Flower Okra Dish under number 953.

17 July 2023: Approval of the founding protocol of the Taşova Organised Industrial Zone.

Sources

Academic studies

  • Sofra Dergisi, "Amasya Çiçek Bamyası'nın Peşinde" (Kübra Sultan Yüzüncüyıl, 2025) amasya.gov.tr

Official sources

  • T.C. Amasya Valiliği, "Taşova" district profile page, amasya.gov.tr tasova.gov.tr
  • T.C. Taşova Kaymakamlığı, "Tarihçe" page, tasova.gov.tr tasova.net
  • T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, Amasya İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü, "Taşova", amasya.ktb.gov.tr amasya.ktb.gov.tr
  • Türk Patent ve Marka Kurumu, Coğrafi İşaret Tescil Belgesi No: 352, Amasya Çiçek Bamyası (2018); Kültür Portalı, "Amasya Çiçek Bamyası"
  • Burak Eryılmaz, "Alpaslan Belediye Müzesi", Online Türkiye Turizm Ansiklopedisi (2019)

Other sources

  • Vikipedi, entries "Taşova" and "Boraboy Gölü"; Wikipedia, "Taşova District"
  • Tasova.net, "Taşova'nın Tarihî ve Ekonomik Gelişimi" and "Alpaslan Köyü" compilations; Objektif Amasya, "Bu İlçe Tam 79 Yaşında" (2023) and "Baraklı Şelalesi" (2025); nufusu.com, "Taşova Nüfusu"