Basalt Rocks ( tr, Bazalt Kayalıkları) are

volcanic rock Volcanic rock (often shortened to volcanics in scientific contexts) is a rock formed from lava erupted from a volcano. In other words, it differs from other igneous rock by being of volcanic origin. Like all rock types, the concept of volcan ...

outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficia ...

s in the form of

columnar basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of ...

located in

Sinop Province Sinop Province ( tr, Sinop ili ; el, Σινώπη, ''Sinopi'') is a province of Turkey, along the Black Sea. It is located between 41 and 42 degrees North latitude and between 34 and 35 degrees East longitude. The surface area is 5,862 ...

, northern Turkey. The area is a registered natural monument of the country. It is away from the center of

Boyabat Boyabat is a town and district of Sinop Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. The mayor is Mehmet Ermiş ( AKP). Boyabat has a population of 50,000 in the town itself. The town is in the Gökırmak ("blue river") valley, a river valley p ...

in Sinop Province, and situated in Fındıklık location nearbay Kurusaray village. The basalt columns were formed about 3-5 million years ago according to research carried out by geologists from Mineral Research and Exploration Co. (MTA) and

Dokuz Eylül University Dokuz Eylül University ( tr, Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi) (DEÜ) is a university in İzmir, Turkey. It was founded in 1982 and is organized in 15 faculties. DEU is the first university which applied the problem-based learning method in Turkey, ...

. The basalt formations are situated in three neighboring valleys. The vertically-jointed basalt columns are in

polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed '' polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two t ...

al form as

rectangular In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90°); or a parallelogram containin ...

pentagonal In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simp ...

and

hexagonal prism In geometry, the hexagonal prism is a prism with hexagonal base. Prisms are polyhedrons; this polyhedron has 8 faces, 18 edges, and 12 vertices.. Since it has 8 faces, it is an octahedron. However, the term ''octahedron'' is primarily used t ...

s, and are high. It covers an area of . The formation, structure, and the outlook of the basalt rocks are rare examples in the world. It was declared a protected area of first grade on March 8, 1996 due to its geological and touristic importance. On September 17, 2007, the local administration applied to the Ministry of Forest and Water Management for acknowledgement as a natural monument. The area was registered a natural monument in 2011.

References

Columnar basalts Natural monuments of Turkey Landforms of Sinop Province Protected areas established in 2011 2011 establishments in Turkey Geology of Turkey {{Asia-protected-area-stub