| Gökçeler Canyon | |
|---|---|
| Gökçeler Kanyonu | |
  Gökçeler Canyon Location of the canyon in Turkey. | |
| Location | Gökçeler-Karacahisar, Milas, Muğla Province, Turkey |
| Long-axis length | about 8 km (5.0 mi) |
| Geography | |
| Coordinates | 37°11′04″N27°45′30″E / 37.18444°N 27.75833°E Coordinates: 37°11′04″N27°45′30″E / 37.18444°N 27.75833°E |
Gökçeler Canyon (Turkish : Gökçeler Kanyonu) is a canyon in Muğla Province, southwestern Turkey.
Turkish, also referred to as Istanbul Turkish, is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around ten to fifteen million native speakers in Southeast Europe and sixty to sixty-five million native speakers in Western Asia. Outside Turkey, significant smaller groups of speakers exist in Germany, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, Greece, the Caucasus, and other parts of Europe and Central Asia. Cyprus has requested that the European Union add Turkish as an official language, even though Turkey is not a member state.
A canyon or gorge is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic timescales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cut through underlying surfaces, eventually wearing away rock layers as sediments are removed downstream. A river bed will gradually reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water into which the river drains. The processes of weathering and erosion will form canyons when the river's headwaters and estuary are at significantly different elevations, particularly through regions where softer rock layers are intermingled with harder layers more resistant to weathering.
Muğla Province is a province of Turkey, at the country's south-western corner, on the Aegean Sea. Its seat is Muğla, about 20 km (12 mi) inland, while some of Turkey's largest holiday resorts, such as Bodrum, Ölüdeniz, Marmaris and Fethiye, are on the coast in Muğla.
The canyon is located between the villages Gökçeler and Karacahisar in Milas district of Muğla Province. It is about 8 km (5.0 mi) long. Değirmen Creek (literally Mill Creek), also known as Hamzabey Creek, runs through the canyon, which forms waterfalls and ponds in different size along its course. It is believed that there were about 14 flour mills on the creek in the canyon in the past, remains of three mills are still existent. There are about 30 large and small caves in the canyon, with İncirliin Cave and Çatal Cave being the most significant. While İncirliin Cave is already open to the public, Çatal Cave awaits scientific exploration. Archaeological finds were discovered in the canyon. [1]
Gökçeler is a village in the Milas district of Muğla Province, Turkey.
Karacahisar is a village in the Milas district of Muğla Province, Turkey.
Milas is an ancient city and the seat of the district of the same name in Muğla Province in southwestern Turkey. The city commands a region with an active economy and very rich in history and ancient remains, the territory of Milas containing a remarkable twenty-seven archaeological sites of note. The city was the first capital of ancient Caria and of the Anatolian beylik of Menteşe in mediaeval times. The nearby Mausoleum of Hecatomnus is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Flora of the canyon consists of centuries-old olive (Olea europaea), walnut ( Juglans ), common fig (Ficus carica), plane tree ( Platanus ), laurel ( Laurus ), red pine ( Pinus resinosa ) and diverse shrub species. Fauna observed in the canyon area are Indian crested porcupine, hare, jackal, fox, wild boar and the bird species partridge, European turtle dove, common blackbird and quail. [1]
The olive, known by the botanical name Olea europaea, meaning "European olive", is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, found in the Mediterranean Basin from Portugal to the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and southern Asia as far east as China, as well as the Canary Islands and Réunion. The species is cultivated in many places and considered naturalized in all the countries of the Mediterranean coast, as well as in Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Java, Norfolk Island, California, and Bermuda. Olea europaea is the type species for the genus Olea.
A walnut is the nut of any tree of the genus Juglans, particularly the Persian or English walnut, Juglans regia.
Walnut trees are any species of tree in the plant genus Juglans, the type genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are referred to as walnuts. All species are deciduous trees, 10–40 metres (33–131 ft) tall, with pinnate leaves 200–900 millimetres (7.9–35.4 in), with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnuts (Pterocarya), but not the hickories (Carya) in the same family.
The canyon offers outdoor recreational activities such as hiking, mountain climbing and cave excursion on daily basis. An observation deck serving the visitors is situated atop the canyon. [1]
