Amasya lies at a point where the main tributaries of the Yeşilırmak meet and where mountain masses draw close to one another. The surface of the province is extremely rugged as a result. Just inland from the Black Sea, the terrain between the extensions of the Canik Mountains and the ranges rising toward Central Anatolia consists of east-west mountains and of valleys cut between them. The city centre stands at 411 metres above sea level. The highest point of the province is Akdağ Peak at 2,061 metres, and the lowest is an elevation of 160 metres near the village of Umutlu in Taşova, where the catchment area of the Hasan Uğurlu Dam begins. The difference of roughly 1,900 metres between the two is the basic measure that divides the climate, vegetation, agriculture and settlement pattern of the province into distinct steps.

Each of these mountains also has a past of its own. The pastures of Akdağ have fed the flocks of the sanjak for centuries, Tavşan Mountain took its name from a Turkmen lord, and the Kırklar and Ferhat mountains on either side of the city are woven about with legend. Since climate, forests and plains are treated in separate articles on this site, the subject here is the mountains themselves: their names and heights, their place in history, the botanical research carried out on them, the valleys opened between them and the highland pastures at the top.

The Order of the Summits

The mountains of the province are divided into peaks, each known by its own name, and the masses to which these peaks belong. The elevations given in the official geographical records are as follows:

  • Akdağ Peak, Akdağ: 2,061 metres
  • Karaömer Peak, Karaömer Mountain: 1,979 metres
  • Cami Peak, Sakarat Mountain: 1,956 metres
  • Yuvalı Peak, Tavşan Mountain: 1,901 metres
  • İnegöl Peak, İnegöl Mountain: 1,873 metres
  • Kaldırım Peak, Eğerli Mountain: 1,776 metres
  • Kuş Yuvası Peak, Karadağ: 1,524 metres
  • Beşik Peak, Buzlu Mountain: 1,392 metres
  • Çalıca Peak, Canik Mountains: 1,376 metres
  • Yeldeğirmeni Peak, Çakır Mountain: 1,375 metres
  • Sarıtaş Peak, Sarıtaş Mountain: 1,159 metres

It is striking that the first five mountains on the list all rise above 1,850 metres. Akdağ, Karaömer and Sakarat follow one another in the eastern part of the province, in the belt between the Yeşilırmak and the Kelkit. The Tavşan and İnegöl mountains rise in the west, around the Merzifon and Gümüş plains. In the middle belt between them stand Karadağ, Buzlu Mountain, Sarıtaş and Çakır, lower in height but sharply bounding the valleys. None of these elevations reaches three thousand metres, as the Kaçkar massif in the eastern Black Sea region does. Even so, terrain lying within the borders of a single province between a summit of two thousand metres and a floor of one hundred and sixty represents an unusual vertical range for the interior of Anatolia. The figures vary slightly from source to source, and the height of Akdağ is also given as 2,062 metres in botanical studies.

The geological history of these mountains is as complex as the relief seen on the surface. According to the geological summary given in a floristic study of Sakarat Mountain, the land of the province was shaped by volcanic and tectonic events and acquired a folded and faulted structure. Around Sakarat the basement consists of Palaeozoic and partly Mesozoic rocks, over which younger formations spread. The ground is made up of limestone, green rocks, slope debris and alluvium, with limestone terrain covering a large area. The oldest formations are metamorphic rocks of the greenschist facies dating back before the Silurian. Hercynian and Alpine mountain-building movements were active in the region; the area was covered by the sea in the Middle Silurian, became land again at the end of the Permian, was invaded by a sea at the beginning of the Lias that remained until the end of the Upper Cretaceous, and, after being covered by a shallow sea in the Eocene, turned into land for the last time in the Pliocene. The limestone ridges and green-rock slopes of Sakarat bear the traces of this long alternation of sea and land.

The Mountains Around the City

The author who described the city of Amasya together with its mountains in the greatest detail is Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, who wrote his Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya) in the early twentieth century. According to him, the city was built on both banks of the Yeşilırmak in a long valley running from north-east to south-west, and it stretches for about thirteen kilometres from Ziyere to the locality of Çalan at the end of the south-western gorge. The Pontic range closes it to the south, the Canik and Harşena ranges to the north, and the Şeyh Cuî-Kelkis and Karaman mountains to the west. Three openings remain between these walls. The north-eastern opening looks along the river toward Taşova, the northern one toward Suluova, and the south-western one toward Derbent and Çalan. Hüsameddin likens the city with its three gates to a great mansion, and writes that the northern gorge is about ten kilometres long and the southern about four, while the north-eastern gorge is fairly wide and opens out as far as Taşova. Water flows through each of the three gorges, and their banks are full of vineyards and gardens.

The way Çakır Mountain, one of the lower mountains of the middle belt, starts from the direction of Çorum and extends as far as Amasya Castle shows the relationship between the mountains and the city. The castle rock may look like a separate hill, but geographically it stands at the end of a range coming from further away. The steep slopes rising on either side of the town are part of the same relief. Harşena Mountain and Ferhat Mountain look directly down on the city. Kocacık Hill and Kırklar Mountain are also counted among the significant heights of the province. Sheltering at the foot of these heights, the town was forced to stretch out along both banks of the narrow valley.

Ferhat Mountain

Hüsameddin records that the high, sheer rock south-west of the Karakaya quarter is called Ferhat Rock, and the range extending eastward from it Ferhat Mountain. He regards this mountain as the western beginning of the Pontic mountains. In his account the range runs to Erzurum, passes from there into Iran, reaches Mount Bisotun in the region of Gilan and ends there. Because it begins with Ferhat and ends with Bisotun, he adds, some Arabic geographical works call the whole range Kûh-ı Bîsütun. As the rock stands above the south-western gorge, its surroundings are known as Ferhatarası. Hüsameddin gives the height of the rock above the ground as about three hundred metres. Its western face is sheer and its top flat; its northern foot is covered with vineyards and vegetable gardens, while its south-western foot consists of black stone. The eastern side of its level ground opens onto highland pastures and well-watered, airy villages.

On the west-facing side of Ferhat Rock, about three metres above the ground, there is an arch-shaped hollow. According to the popular legend, Ferhat, in love with Şirin, carried the great water channel he dug in thirty-nine days through this rock, and the five-metre grave on top of the rock belongs to Ferhat. Hüsameddin treats this story as a fairy tale and thinks that the fact that the rock bore Ferhat's name played a part in the birth of the legend. The story of Ferhat and Şirin and the water channel are the subject of a separate article on this site. What matters here is that this rocky range guarding the south-western gate of the city carries its name, and the level ground reaching toward the surrounding pastures, together with the same legend.

Kırklar Mountain and Harşena

According to Hüsameddin's description, the Harşena rock on which the castle sits is a mass with a flat front, its back resting against Kırklar Mountain, broad at the base and narrowing as it rises. It extends for about two and a half kilometres from the middle of the Helkis Garden to the end of the Kamereddin quarter; its summit is flat, its eastern side low and its western side high. The author likens this shape to a falcon taking off toward the west. The northern side of the castle rests against a higher mountain, and the name of that mountain is Kırklar Mountain. In documents dated 682 (1283) that Hüsameddin saw, the mountain appears in Arabic as "Cebel-i Erbaîn", that is, the Mountain of the Forty. This record shows that the name is very old.

The legend offered as the origin of the name runs as follows. When Danishmend Gazi besieged Amasya Castle and the defenders held out, forty warriors fixed candles to the horns of several flocks of sheep they had gathered on this mountain and, toward dawn, drove the flocks down from the mountain toward the castle in military order. Believing that a large relief force had arrived, the defenders opened the gate, and the forty warriors entered the castle and forced the defenders to surrender. Hüsameddin relates this legend as a widespread tale thought to have produced the name, and does not base it on any document. The author also notes that the village of Alparslan, north of the city, lies at the foot of Kırklar Mountain facing Suluova. The mountain's pastures were moreover a source of income. Hüsameddin's biographies record that the grazing dues of Kırklar Mountain were assigned to Seyyid Hüseyin Efendi, preacher of the castle and teacher at the Dizdariye Madrasa, as payment for his preaching and teaching duties, and that after his death in 1173 (1759-1760) the treasury took possession of this income.

Lokman Mountain and Karaman Mountain

Hüsameddin writes that the mountain opposite the Balus Rock, which extends east of the Beyler Sarayı, is called Lokman Mountain. This mountain descends from behind the Savakça quarter to the front of the Kibrithane. Its southern parts form a very high and airy pasture. The author connects the name Lokman, given to the mountain, the pasture and the water that rises there, to Reşîdeddîn Lokmân bin Hasan el-Harezmî, a physician of the Amasya Darüşşifa (hospital). The physician owned this land and was buried at a level spot on the pasture. His grave was built very large and resembles that of Ferhat. The people point to it as the grave of the famous Lokman Hekim, whose status as prophet or saint has been disputed. In Hüsameddin's view this man was a real physician who lived around 727 (1326-1327), and it was his name that gave rise to the legend. The Soğuk Pınar spring also rises on Lokman Mountain near the physician's grave and waters the vineyards of the quarters below.

The mountain that closes the city to the west, by contrast, is called Karaman Mountain. Hüsameddin describes it as a lightly wooded mountain running from north to south and says that it is part of the mountain known as Kelkis. It reaches as far as the head of the Çalan Bridge at the end of the southern gorge; its western side looks over the Geldiklan plain and its eastern side over the city of Amasya. The author's explanation of its name rests on an event. In 727 (1326-1327) Yahşi Bey of the Karamanids, after besieging Amasya for some time, entered the city from the west and had Gümüşlüzade Tâceddin Mahmud Çelebi seized and sent to Egypt. Hüsameddin writes that the mountain on which the Karamanids pitched their tents and from which they came down into the city has been called Karaman Mountain ever since. He himself presents this explanation as an opinion. The vineyards on the mountain's eastern foot are called Akbilek, and the vineyards and slopes higher up İltekin.

Akdağ, Karaömer and Sakarat

Akdağ is bounded on the south by the Yeşilırmak and on the north by the Şeyhsuyu and Kocaalan streams. Carrying the highest summit in the province, this massif is also an important watershed. The Tersakan rises from the slopes of Akdağ at about 1,925 metres, receives the overflow of Lake Ladik, passes through Havza and joins the Yeşilırmak within the borders of Amasya. The pastures of Akdağ lie at an average of 1,850 metres and are celebrated every year with festivals. The Derinöz Dam in Suluova was also built on the Derinöz stream, one of the tributaries of the Tersakan.

The historical place of Akdağ takes concrete form in a subdistrict that bore the same name in the Ottoman period. In Hüsameddin's day the district of Amasya was divided into four subdistricts (nahiye), the first of which, the Akdağ Subdistrict, covered the eastern parts of the city's territory. Its centre was the village of Akviran. The author attributes the name of the subdistrict to its position at the foot of the mountain that runs from east to west and has long been known as Akdağ. The pastures of this mountain were plentiful, its winter quarters well regarded, its water abundant and its air very healthy, and most of the sheep of the Amasya sanjak grazed there in summer. The butter, cheese and yoghurt of Akdağ were renowned throughout the Pontic region. The height of about twelve hundred metres that Hüsameddin gives for Akdağ is far below present-day measurements. It may be supposed that the figure was estimated from the surrounding plains rather than from sea level.

The slopes of Akdağ also determined the settlement pattern of the city and the nearby towns. The town of Ladik was built on the northern slopes of Akdağ, on a hillside inclining to the south. The Ziyere quarter at the north-eastern end of the city likewise lies at the foot of a small mountain that branches off from Akdağ and descends toward the Yeşilırmak. Hüsameddin writes that the new city founded south of the Yeşilırmak in the Seljuk period was open and spacious on every side compared with the narrow and gloomy inner citadel, and that its air was considered healthy because it was exposed to the cold winds of Akdağ. The villages of the subdistrict also gave names to the learned life of Amasya. Sheikh Muhyiddin Mehmed Akdağî, who founded a dervish lodge in the village of Başalan, his sons Bedreddin Mahmud Efendi, military judge of Anatolia, and Hüsameddin Hüseyin Efendi, a Halveti sheikh, and Akdağlı Sheikh Mustafa Efendi of Akviran, a celebrated teacher, all came from this subdistrict.

Karaömer Mountain is a range lying between the Tersakan and Destek streams and Akdağ. The North Anatolian Fault is given as the boundary separating it from the Canik Mountains. Its highest point is Karaömer Peak at 1,979 metres, and the Sarıçiçek pastures lie on the level ground to the east. Sakarat Mountain, on the other hand, is a long massif that begins at the Ferhatarası Valley in Amasya and extends between the Yeşilırmak and the Kelkit as far as Köse Mountain. Its highest point is Cami Peak at 1,956 metres, and the Boğalı pastures lie on this mountain. The Deliçay rises from the Boğalı pastures of Sakarat. The Kuruçay also flows out of the same mountain and joins the Yeşilırmak on the provincial border between Amasya and Tokat.

Sakarat lies between the provinces of Amasya and Tokat. To its east are the villages of Fındıcak, Ezebağı, Cibril and Akkoç, to its west Çatalçam, Beldağı and Yuvaköy, to its north Esençay, Kumluca and Tatlıpınar, and to its south Karataş, Erenli, Kargın and Kuytul, with the village of Sarayözü to the south-west. Besides Cami Peak, the main heights of the mountain are Otulcakuz Peak at 1,564 metres and Poyrazlık Peak at 1,560 metres. The foot of the mountain descends to 500 metres, and this wide range of altitude allows very different habitats to exist side by side.

The Tavşan, İnegöl and Eğerli Mountains

Tavşan Mountain, the highest in the western belt, lies between the Merzifon plain and the Kızılırmak and Kuzçayı. Its highest point is Yuvalı Peak at 1,901 metres. To its south-east lies Merzifon, to its south-west Gümüşhacıköy, to its north-east Havza and to its north-west Vezirköprü. For this reason Tavşan Mountain counts as a mountain of Samsun as well as of Amasya. The Kabaoğuz pastures stretch along its western slope and the Tavşandağı pastures across its level ground. The Kavşak stream rises from this mountain and flows into the Kızılırmak, and the Karadere Dam, built for irrigation, stands on this stream.

Hüsameddin introduces this mountain as the largest in the Amasya sanjak after Akdağ. According to him it begins at the Tersakan and runs from east to west as far as the Kızılırmak in the district of Osmancık. It is about forty-five kilometres long; its width of twenty-five kilometres at the beginning narrows to eight at the end, so that it resembles a coffin. It is covered on all sides with fertile fields, and its eastern parts are forest and pasture. On its southern slopes lie the towns of Merzifon and Hacıköyü, on its northern slopes Havza and Köprü. Merzifon was built on a hill gently descending to the plain on the southern slope of Taşan Mountain, Havza on a hillside on the north-eastern slope, and Köprü between two hills on the north-western slopes. Many villages and farms lie on the mountain, along its sides and at its foot.

The name of the mountain is also explained in this source. According to Hüsameddin, the whole mountain was the private estate of Taşan Bey, a descendant of the Seljuk Hüsrevşah who lived in Kedeğra. Taking advantage of the turmoil that began in the region when Timurtaş Bey, governor of Rum, disappeared in 727 (1327), Taşan Bey gained power and then, attaching himself to Eretna Bey, founded a small principality. Because he made the mountain his home even after that, it came to be called Taşan Mountain, and the name gradually turned into Tavşan Mountain. The third volume of the book repeats that Taşan Bey lived in the high mountains and pastures between Köprü and Merzifon and ruled over the districts of Köprü, Havza and Merzifon. His descendants, such as Bali, Ahmed, Ali, Hasan and Şahin Beys, went on living on the mountain, endowed part of it as waqf, and accepted Ottoman rule early. Hüsameddin also writes that for a time Merzifon bore the title "Vilâyet-i Hâs" after these Taşanzades. The view that the present name Tavşan is a corruption of Taşan rests on this source and has not been confirmed by any other document.

In the Ottoman period Taşan Mountain continued to play a part in the life of Merzifon. In 1090 (1679), when the grand vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha built a stone mosque in the centre of Merzifon, he had conduits laid from a distance of two kilometres on Taşan Mountain to bring water to the town, and built some thirty stone fountains. The wooded and broken terrain of the mountain, however, at times served as a refuge for brigands. Hüsameddin relates that in Muharram 1078 (1667) a brigand chief named Deli Süleyman, while the district governor Ferhad Pasha was in pursuit, came down from Taşan Mountain with his companions in broad daylight and raided Merzifon, plundering many houses and killing Abdullah Efendi, the mufti of Merzifon. Seydizade Arslan Bey of the Taşanoğulları, for his part, had been granted the Taşan Mountain estate as an "ocaklık" (hereditary holding) after his father's death. It is written of Arslan Bey, who died some time after 1128 (1716), that he did not let a single brigand stir on the mountain.

İnegöl Mountain is bounded on the north by the Kavşak stream, on the south by the Hamamözü stream, on the west by the Kızılırmak and on the east by the Gümüş plain. Its highest point is İnegöl Peak at 1,873 metres, and the Hamamözü stream, flowing to the Kızılırmak, also rises here. Hüsameddin writes that the İnegöl Mountains west of the district of Hacıköyü were high, their forest famous, their pastures well regarded and their waters abundant, and that they met a large share of the basic needs of the districts of Hacıköyü and Osmancık. The district's Hamamözü subdistrict covers the eastern and northern slopes of the İnegöl Mountains and was formerly settled by the Göçerli tribe and some Çepni Turkmens. The town of Gümüş also stands on the eastern slope of İnegöl Mountain, about two kilometres south of Hacıköyü. The mountains and hills against which the town rests contain abundant silver ore. Hüsameddin supposes that the town took its name from this mine, and stresses that the name Gümüş has appeared in the records since 575 (1179-1180) and that superintendents of the mine have been known since 648 (1250-1251).

Eğerli Mountain begins at the Çorum plain and extends as far as the Merzifon plain. The Çatalçam pastures lie on its high level ground within the borders of Amasya, and its highest point is Kaldırım Peak at 1,776 metres. These three mountains are the heights that surround the western plains of the province. The fact that part of Gümüşhacıköy district lies in the Kızılırmak basin rather than that of the Yeşilırmak shows that in this sector the provincial territory rests on the watershed between two great rivers.

The Middle Belt: Karadağ, Buzlu, Sarıtaş and Çakır

These mountains, lower in height and forming the side walls of the river valleys, determine the internal layout of the province. Karadağ runs between the Çorum stream and the Çekerek River and ends where the Çorum stream flows into the Çekerek. Its highest point is Kuş Yuvası Peak at 1,524 metres. Buzlu Mountain lies between the Zile plain and the Çekerek River and reaches 1,392 metres at Beşik Peak. These two mountains squeeze the Göynücek Valley, cut by the Çekerek, from both sides. Sarıtaş Mountain lies between the Yeşilırmak and the Deliçay. It begins where the Deliçay joins the Yeşilırmak, ends at the Kuruçay and has the 1,159-metre Sarıtaş Peak. Çakır Mountain, finally, starts from the direction of Çorum city centre and extends as far as Amasya Castle, its highest point being 1,375 metres.

The Canik Mountains

The great range closing off the north of Amasya is the Canik Mountains. It begins in the Kızılırmak valley south-west of Samsun and runs parallel to the Black Sea for about 180 kilometres as far as the Melet River, which flows east of Ordu. Its southern edge ends at the Kelkit River, over a length of about 60 kilometres. Its average height is around 1,500 metres. The Yeşilırmak cuts through this range between the Topuzlu and Eğrikazık mountains and emerges onto the Çarşamba plain. The sources do not give the same figure for the highest point of the Canik range. The provincial governorship records give 2,181 metres, while encyclopaedic sources give Aydoğan Peak as 1,971 metres. Its highest point within the borders of Amasya province is Çalıca Peak at 1,376 metres.

The Canik Mountains are farther from the coast and lower than the ranges of the eastern Black Sea. As a result, the moist air of the Black Sea penetrates inland instead of being exhausted on the coast, the coastal plains remain wider, and communication between the coast and the interior becomes easier. On the north-facing sides there are humid forests dominated by beech, while on the southern slopes there are drier forests in which Scots pine and oak are concentrated. The fact that the road linking the interior of Anatolia to the port of Samsun, and the railway line opened in 1930, could pass through Amasya is related to this lowness. The linking of the central Black Sea region to the interior by road and rail also played a part in the growth of Samsun. Older sources, too, see the city in the shadow of this range. In the entry from the Dâiretü'l-Maârif that Hüsameddin translated from Arabic, Amasya is described as a city built in a beautiful valley at the foot of the Canik Mountains, on both banks of the Yeşilırmak, called Iris.

Fault Lines and Valleys

The mountains and valleys of the province are two faces of the same fractures. The North Anatolian Fault defines the boundary between Karaömer and Canik and passes through the Destek Valley. The Ezine Valley is likewise a depression formed by the fault line that bears its name. The Yeşilırmak and its tributaries, for their part, have sliced through the mountains and opened long valleys between them. The main valleys of the province and their lengths are as follows:

  • Karaçavuş Valley: 39 kilometres. It runs between the Sarıtaş and Buzlu mountains, from the point where the Kuruçay flows into the Yeşilırmak to the point where the Deliçay joins it. The Şahin Kayası Canyon lies within it.
  • Ezine Valley: 39 kilometres. It lies between Sarıtaş and Sakarat, and the Deliçay flows through it.
  • Göynücek Valley: 37 kilometres. It is the course followed by the Çekerek River from Ortaköy in Çorum to the Geldingen plain, between Karadağ and Buzlu Mountain.
  • Destek Valley: 33 kilometres. The Destek stream flows through it as far as the point where the Kelkit joins the Yeşilırmak.
  • Gökdere Valley: 22 kilometres.
  • Onlukköprü Valley: 20 kilometres. It begins where the Tersakan flows into the Yeşilırmak, passes through the townships of Ziyaret and Yenice and ends at Kuzgeçe. This is the valley where the Amasya apple is grown.
  • Durucasu Valley: 18 kilometres. It runs from Kuzgeçe to the village of Çambükü in Taşova.
  • Ferhatarası Valley: 10 kilometres. It descends from the village of Kayabaşı to the Hacılar Meydanı in Amasya.
  • Beşgöz Valley: 8.5 kilometres. It lies between Boğazköy and the point where the Tersakan joins the Yeşilırmak.

The most important of them all is the valley of the Yeşilırmak itself. In this valley of fertile alluvial soils a climate with microclimatic features prevails, and fruit and vegetable growing come to the fore. The fact that snowfall in the city centre in winter either has no effect or is short-lived is explained by the moderating influence of this low valley set among the mountains. In the same season snow falls on the higher ground. The seasonal difference between the mountain top and the valley floor is sometimes experienced over a distance of a few tens of kilometres.

Altitudinal Steps

The vertical arrangement of the province can be read as a staircase stepped according to elevation. The lowest step is the valley floor, which begins at the 160-metre outlet at Taşova and rises to around 400 metres along the Yeşilırmak valley. The city centre of Amasya is at 411 metres. This belt of valley floors between 200 and 500 metres has mild conditions and is the domain of orchards and irrigated farming. The average elevation of the Geldingen plain is 450 metres. This plain is the part of the province that receives the least precipitation, with an average annual rainfall of between 400 and 500 millimetres.

On the middle step, between 500 and 1,000 metres, lie plains and grain fields. The Suluova plain is at around 550 metres, the Merzifon and Aydınca plains at 700 and the Gümüş plain at 750. Together the Geldingen, Suluova, Merzifon and Gümüş plains cover about 24 percent of the area of the province and are the most important areas for its agriculture. Most of the remaining land is mountainous, so although the share of these four plains looks small, their economic weight is great.

Above a thousand metres, coniferous forests and highland pastures begin. Lake Borabay in Taşova lies at 1,050 metres. A natural barrier formed by masses that collapsed from the slopes holds the lake within an east-west valley. Although popularly taken for a crater lake, Borabay is a typical landslide-dammed lake. It was formed by water accumulating behind the landslide mass that blocked the valley of the Çatağın stream. Measurements of the volume, drainage area and height of the barrier place the lake among the stable landslide-dammed lakes. The researchers state that the lake has existed for a long time and will continue to exist if care is taken over its drainage, but that because of its proximity to the North Anatolian Fault zone it should be kept under observation. Higher up, between 1,200 and 1,850 metres, stretch the level highland pastures, and above them only the summit belt remains.

Botanical Research on the Mountains

Because the mountains of Amasya lie in the transition belt between the Euro-Siberian and Irano-Turanian phytogeographical regions, they have long attracted the interest of botanists. With the humid climate of the Black Sea on one side and the dry climate of Central Anatolia on the other, species belonging to both regions grow together on these mountains. Zohary named this belt, which encircles the Central Anatolian steppe from the north and also harbours Black Sea trees and shrubs, the Xero-Euxine belt. Since the general distribution of the forests is described in a separate article on this site, only the results of studies on individual mountains are given here. These studies cover Eğerli Mountain, Tavşan Mountain, Çakır Mountain, İnegöl Mountain, Sakarat Mountain and Akdağ.

On Sakarat Mountain about two thousand plant specimens collected in 2004-2005 were examined, and 494 species and subspecific taxa belonging to 78 families were identified. The largest family is the daisy family with 70 species, followed by the legumes with 46, while the richest genus is milkvetch (Astragalus) with eight species. Of the species, 127 are Euro-Siberian, 43 Irano-Turanian and 24 Mediterranean in origin, and 40 species, or about 8 percent, are endemic. The vegetation of the mountain falls into three main groups. In the forest belt there are mixed forests dominated by Scots pine, forests in which oriental beech prevails, and mixed communities of oriental hornbeam and various oaks. Above the tree line the subalpine belt is formed by dwarf juniper communities. In the steppe areas milkvetch and prickly thrift species stand out. Rock vegetation and wet meadows are also found here and there. The researchers note that, thanks to Sakarat's well-developed forests, Euro-Siberian species rank first there, whereas in most studies in Amasya Irano-Turanian species come first, and they take this as a sign of heavy degradation of the province's plant cover.

The study of Tavşan Mountain identified 594 species and subspecific taxa belonging to 77 families. Of these, 141 are Euro-Siberian, 71 Irano-Turanian, 20 Mediterranean and 10 East Mediterranean elements. The number of endemic species is 65, giving an endemism rate of 10.94 percent. On Tavşan Mountain the genus with the most species is speedwell (Veronica). In floristic studies in Amasya, endemism rates range between 6.89 and 12.30 percent, well below the Turkish average of 31 percent. The presence of Mediterranean species in all these studies is explained by the influence of the Yeşilırmak valley. These species have settled in the alluvial areas of the lower parts of the valley.

A study of 1,500 moss specimens collected on Akdağ from thirty-seven stations between 2009 and 2011 revealed 178 taxa belonging to 26 families. For two of them the locality records are the first for Turkey, while several others were found in the country for only the second time. The study's list of stations also illustrates the altitudinal steps of the mountain. Around five hundred metres there are Turkish red pine and black pine, around a thousand metres oriental beech and Scots pine, at two stations between 1,060 and 1,230 metres Taurus cedar with black pine, at seventeen hundred and fifty metres high mountain meadows, and above two thousand metres communities of milkvetch and prickly thrift. Another study of the plant communities of Akdağ described thirteen plant associations and two sub-associations, of which three were classified as new associations belonging to the forest, seven to the mountain steppe and one to the coniferous cushion scrub.

Highland Pastures

Because the highland pastures of Amasya lie in a belt where the Black Sea climate and the Central Anatolian climate merge, they host plant species typical of both the Black Sea and Central Anatolia side by side. Each pasture lies on the level ground of a mountain and is known by that mountain's name. Their average elevations are as follows:

  • Akdağ pastures: 1,850 metres. They lie on the heights of Akdağ, where highland festivals are held.
  • Boğalı pastures: 1,850 metres. They are on Sakarat Mountain.
  • Sarıçiçek pastures: 1,650 metres. They are on the level ground east of Karaömer Mountain.
  • İnegöl pastures: 1,600 metres. They are on İnegöl Mountain.
  • Tavşandağı pastures: 1,500 metres. They are on the level ground of Tavşan Mountain.
  • Kabaoğuz pastures: 1,400 metres. They are on the western slope of Tavşan Mountain, and the Kabaoğuz festival is held there once a year.
  • Çatalçam pastures: 1,400 metres. They are on the high level ground of Eğerli Mountain within the borders of Amasya.
  • Destek pastures: 1,200 metres. They are on the high level ground of the Canik Mountains, north of the Destek stream.

The highland pastures are the grazing grounds to which flocks climb in summer to escape the heat of the plains. A year spent on garden and field work in the low valleys turns into seasonal stock-raising on the high plateaus. Hüsameddin's description of Akdağ shows how old this pattern is. According to him, most of the sheep of the Amasya sanjak spent the summer on the Akdağ pastures. The same tradition continues today. A news report published in September 2024 tells the story of a shepherd family who walk about 120 kilometres from the Tekkeköy district of Samsun to the Akdağ Ovacık and Su Gözü pastures in Suluova. The family goes up to the pasture with their sheep in May and returns in September. During the week-long journey the flock spends the nights in open country without a fold, and a few sheep are sometimes lost to wolf attacks. According to the shepherd, the family has made its living from sheep for a hundred years.

Another face of the pastures is their festivals. The Kabaoğuz and Akdağ festivals bring together the people of the surrounding villages on the pastures in the summer months. The sixteenth edition of the festival organised by the Akdağlılar Association at the Kapaklı recreation area in Suluova was held in August 2024. The programme included karakucak wrestling bouts with eighty-four competitors in the junior categories, local games that had been falling into oblivion, and halay dances to folk songs performed by local musicians, while participants were offered çörek, stuffed vegetables, yağlı pastry and keşkek. The association states that the aim of the festivals it has held for sixteen years is to keep the culture of the region alive and to protect nature. Today these pastures have also become a stop for hikers, campers and botanical observers. For paragliding, the slopes of the Bar, Ferhat and Taşan mountains are used.

The pastures close to the city were also important in the past. The high and airy level ground that Hüsameddin calls the Lokman Pasture lay on the southern part of Lokman Mountain. The Kaya Paşa water, for its part, rose on the pasture of the village of Ermiş, about three kilometres beyond the Çakallar vineyards, and came down to the city. In 805 (1402-1403) Kaya Pasha, grandson of Torumtay, had the source of this water cleaned and its channel repaired, built fountains at fifteen places and endowed the water as waqf. Osman Fevzi Olcay, too, describing the Amasya of his youth, recalls that the pastoralists of Ziyere were regular customers of a greengrocer's shop in the city, and that the best cream, milk and yoghurt came there.

The present state of the pastures, however, is not encouraging. In recent years excessive use of agricultural chemicals and fertiliser, overgrazing and the clearing of land for fields have damaged the pastures, and in places the bedrock has been exposed on the upper parts. In the forests at the edge of the pastures young trees are not growing up to replace the old ones, so the tree line is slowly descending. On the high ground the soil is thin, and a damaged pasture recovers far less easily than one at lower elevations.

Waters Descending from the Mountains

Most of the province's streams have their sources in the mountains, so the link between the mountains and the plains is also a link of water. The Deliçay is 48 kilometres long and rises from the Boğalı pastures of Sakarat. The Kuruçay is about 50 kilometres long. The Destek stream flows for 35 kilometres between Karaömer and Canik and joins the Yeşilırmak at Taşova. The Gökdere stream rises in the Canik Mountains, lies in the district of Taşova and is 40 kilometres long. The Çekerek River, by contrast, rises outside the provincial borders in the Yıldız Mountains north-west of Sivas, at an elevation of 2,500 metres, and joins the Yeşilırmak about 15 kilometres south of Amasya.

The sources of the Tersakan also lie on the pastures. Hüsameddin writes that six streams rising on the Seki, Kızoğlu, Polad and Çakır Gümüş pastures flow into the lake south-east of the town of Ladik, and that the water leaving the lake forms the river known as the Tersakan. In his day the lake was six kilometres long, three kilometres wide and about six metres deep. Its fish and reed beds were famous, fine mats were woven from its reeds, and the draining of the lake was under consideration.

Major floods on the Yeşilırmak, the Çekerek and the Tersakan generally occur in March, April and May. On the Tersakan summer downpours can also cause flooding. The city itself, surrounded by steep slopes, is exposed to torrents coming down from the mountain. In the flood disaster of June 1948 eighty-eight people lost their lives, one hundred and forty-nine houses in Yukarı Savadiye and its surroundings were completely destroyed and swept into the Yeşilırmak, and some five hundred houses were damaged. Osman Fevzi Olcay writes that after the proclamation of the Constitution every single tree in the Soğukpınar vineyards of the Yukarı Savadiye quarter was cut down to burn lime for the repair of the ruins of the palace of Bayezid II at Saraydüzü, and he is of the opinion that had these trees been in place the disaster would not have happened. This is the author's own assessment. The irrigation ponds and dams in the province were built partly to regulate this fluctuating flow and to irrigate the plains through the summer.

The Mountains and History

The city's position, enclosed by mountains, was also decisive in its military history. In Hüsameddin's conquest narratives the mountains appear as positions that anyone wishing to master the city had to hold. According to his account, the Umayyad commander Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik tried in the hijri year 92 to descend on Amasya over the Kelkis vineyards west of the city, that is, from Karaman Mountain, and after suffering heavy losses withdrew to the Geldiklan and Çorum plains. Describing the siege by the Danishmendid Ahmed Gazi in 467 (1075), he also writes that the Fon (Ferhat) and Kelkis (Karaman) mountains on either side of the southern gorge and Ferhatarası were full of Byzantine soldiers, each under a separate commander. It is not clear on which documents the details of these narratives, particularly the names of the Byzantine commanders, are based, and they could not be confirmed from other sources. Even so, the idea that the city's defence depended on the mountains closing its gorges is consistent with the geography itself.

In later periods too the mountains served as refuges for fugitives and rebels. The entry of Yahşi Bey of the Karamanids into the city from the mountain to the west in 727 (1327), Taşan Bey's making his home in the same years in the mountains between Merzifon and Köprü, and the brigands' descent from Taşan Mountain to raid Merzifon in the seventeenth century are reflections of the same geography in different centuries. Hüsameddin's records of the Ottoman period relate how the district governor, the alaybeyi and the leading sipahis set out together in pursuit of brigands who had appeared on Taşan Mountain and in the Ladik area.

The Influence of the Mountains on Human Life

Before it shapes the scenery, the difference in elevation determines ways of making a living. In the low valleys there are gardens and dense settlement, on the middle step grain and irrigated farming, and on the high pastures seasonal stock-raising. The same mountain range often acts as a closed wall on one side and as a passage on the other. The lowness of the Canik range made the roads between Samsun and the interior possible, and the Yeşilırmak and Kelkit valleys carried the routes leading east.

Throughout history the mountains have both protected and shaped Amasya. The fact that the town is squeezed at the foot of the Harşena rock onto both banks of the river is related to this mountain structure. The placing of the rock-cut tombs and the castle on steep slopes is likewise a result of the same relief. Even the names of the mountains keep a record of this relationship. Kırklar Mountain recalls a conquest legend, Karaman Mountain a siege, Tavşan Mountain a Turkmen lord, Lokman Mountain a hospital physician, and Ferhat Mountain a love story. This close relationship between mountain and valley underlies the different opportunities Amasya offers at different elevations, for both agriculture and nature tourism.

Chronology

467 (1075): According to Hüsameddin, during the Danishmendid Ahmed Gazi's siege of Amasya the Fon (Ferhat) and Kelkis (Karaman) mountains are held by Byzantine soldiers.

575 (1179-1180): The name Gümüş begins to appear in the records for the town at the foot of İnegöl Mountain.

648 (1250-1251): Superintendents of the silver mine at Gümüş are known in the records from this date onward.

682 (1283): The mountain north of the castle appears in documents under the name "Cebel-i Erbaîn" (Kırklar Mountain).

727 (1326-1327): Yahşi Bey of the Karamanids enters the city from the mountain to the west. The mountain is thought to have taken the name Karaman Mountain from this event. In the same years Taşan Bey establishes his principality in the mountains between Merzifon and Köprü.

805 (1402-1403): Kaya Pasha has the source of the water coming from the pasture of Ermiş village cleaned, its channel repaired, and endows the water as waqf.

1078 (1667): The brigand chief Deli Süleyman comes down from Taşan Mountain and raids Merzifon.

1090 (1679): Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha brings water to Merzifon through conduits laid from Taşan Mountain.

1930: The Samsun railway line, making use of the low passes of the Canik Mountains, is opened on a route passing through Amasya.

June 1948: In the flood disaster in Amasya eighty-eight people die and one hundred and forty-nine houses are destroyed.

2004-2005: Field studies on the flora of Sakarat Mountain are carried out.

2009-2011: Specimens are collected for the study of the moss flora of Akdağ.

2024: The sixteenth Akdağ Highland Festival is held in Suluova.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

  • Hasan Korkmaz, Erkan Yalçın, Ali Engin, Cengiz Yıldırım, "Tavşan dağının (Amasya-Merzifon) florası", Ot Sistematik Botanik Dergisi, 12/2, 2005, pp. 103-140. amasya.bel.tr
  • Kerem Canli, Barbaros Çetin, "The Moss Flora of Akdağ Mountain (Amasya, Turkey)", The Scientific World Journal, 2014, article no. 860379.

Official sources

  • Governorship of Amasya, "Yeryüzü Şekilleri" (sections on Mountains, Highland Pastures, Valleys, Plains and Rivers).

Other sources

  • Coğrafya Dünyası, "Amasya" (general information on the province, major mountains and climate).
  • Wikipedia (Turkish), "Canik Dağları".
  • Wikipedia (Turkish), "Tavşan Dağı".
  • Wikipedia (Turkish), "Amasya" (geography and climate sections).
  • Arzu Cansaran, M. Ümit Bingöl, Fatmagül Geven, Kerim Güney, Neslihan Erdoğan, Ömer Faruk Kaya, "Contribution to the Flora of Sakarat Mountain (Amasya/Turkey)", Biological Diversity and Conservation, 3/1, 2010, pp. 103-120.
  • Cengiz Yıldırım, Erkan Yalçın, Arzu Cansaran, "Syntaxonomy and vegetation-environment relationships in Mount Akdag (Amasya/Turkiye)", Rendiconti Lincei. Scienze Fisiche e Naturali, 33/3, 2022, pp. 673-696.
  • Yıldırım Atayeter, Onur Yayla, "Boraboy Heyelanında (Amasya) Jeomorfometrik Değerlendirmeler", 2024 (Süleyman Demirel University open-access record).
  • Haberler.com, "Amasya'da düzenlenen Akdağ Yayla Şenlikleri'nde Karakucak Güreşleri yapıldı", 5 August 2024. haberler.com
  • Bengütürk, "Amasya'da yaylacıların dönüş yolculuğu başladı", 12 September 2024 (sourced from Anadolu Agency).

Online sources