• Turkey Guide

  • Introduction to Turkey
  • 17 things not to miss
  • Red tape and visas
  • Opening hours and public holidays
  • Getting around

• Explore Turkey

  • İstanbul
  • Around the Sea of Marmara
  • The North Aegean
  • The central and southern Aegean
  • The Turquoise Coast
  • The Mediterranean coast and the Hatay
  • South Central Anatolia
  • North Central Anatolia
  • The Black Sea coast
  • Northeastern Anatolia
  • The Euphrates and Tigris basin
  • Lake Van and the southeast

• Cities

  • Ankara
    
  • Antalya
    
  • Edirne
    
  • Erzurum
    
  • İstanbul
    

Turkey Guide

North Central Anatolia

Amasya

• Accommodation
• Eating and drinking

The journey to Amasya does little to prepare you for the charm of the place. Along the E80 highway (the main approach road if you're coming in from points west), the landscape is thoroughly uninspiring until just a few kilometres before the town itself, when you suddenly find yourself amid the lush farmland and orchards of the Yeşılırmak valley. Once you've made the dolmuş trip into town from the otogar, however, Amasya turns out to be one of the high points of North Central Anatolia. It occupies a point in the river valley so narrow that it's almost a gorge, and is blessed with a super-abundant historical legacy. Most people come here to see the rock tombs hewn into the cliffs above the town by the kings of Pontus over 2000 years ago, but Amasya also harbours some truly beautiful Selçuk and Ottoman architecture, and a multitude of colourful, restored nineteenth-century wooden houses.