Kula-Salihli Geopark, also known as Kula Volcanic Geopark and Kula Geopark, ( or ''Kula Jeoparkı'') is a

geopark A geopark is a protected area with internationally significant geology within which Sustainability, sustainable development is sought and which includes tourism, conservation, education and research concerning not just geology but other relevant s ...

, a protected area of geological heritage, located in Kula and

Salihli Salihli is a municipality and district of Manisa Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,359 km2, and its population is 165,182 (2023). The ancient Lydian capitals of Sardes and Daldis are located within Salihli. Geography The city of Salihli, whic ...

districts of

Manisa Province Manisa Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality in western Turkey. Its area is 13,339 km2, and its population is 1,468,279 (2022). Its neighboring provinces are İzmi ...

, western Turkey. It was recognized by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

as a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2013, and is the country's only geopark.

Location

The volcanic park is located in

in western Turkey, covering an area of nearly mainly in Kula district, and stretches in the north into parts of

district. The elevation of the area rises from in Salihli to in Kula.

History

The volcanic field was first described by the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

geographer

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

(64 or 63 BC – c. 24 AD) in the encyclopedia ''

Geographica The ''Geographica'' (, ''Geōgraphiká''; or , "Strabo's 17 Books on Geographical Topics") or ''Geography'', is an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 'books', written in Greek in the late 1st century BC, or early 1st cen ...

'', calling it

Katakekaumene Katakekaumene or Catacecaumene () was a name for a district in Lydia (modern western Turkey), and a decapolis (disambiguation), union of ten cities in the area, during the Hellenistic and Roman Empire, Roman periods. The name means "burnt land" ...

. The name means "burnt land" or "burnt country", and refers to the pitch-black color of the lava in the dormant volcanic field Kula. The volcanic field attracted many travelers and researchers, including George Keppel (1830), William Hamilton and

Hugh Edwin Strickland Hugh Edwin Strickland (2 March 1811 – 14 September 1853) was an English geologist, ornithology, ornithologist, naturalist and systematist. Through the British Association, he proposed a series of rules for the nomenclature of organisms in zool ...

(1841),

Charles Texier Félix Marie Charles Texier (22 August 1802, Versailles – 1 July 1871, Paris) was a French historian, architect and archaeologist. Texier published a number of significant works involving personal travels throughout Asia Minor and the Middle Eas ...

, Bresh and

Anton von Premerstein Anton may refer to: People *Anton (given name), a list of people with the given name *Anton (surname), a list of people with the surname Places *Anton Municipality, Bulgaria **Anton, Sofia Province, a village *Antón District, Panama **Antón, ...

(1891), Henry Stephens Washington (1900) and

Alfred Philippson Alfred Philippson (1 January 1864 – 28 March 1953) was a German geologist and geographer. He was born at Bonn, son of Ludwig Philippson. He received his education at the gymnasium and university of his native town and at the University of Lei ...

(1914).

Geopark

In November 2011, an application was made to the

European Geoparks Network The European Geoparks Network (EGN) functions as the regional organization of the Global Geoparks Network (GGN) and the UNESCO International Geosciences and Geoparks Programme (UNESCO-IGGP). Its main objective is to ensure cooperation between geop ...

and

. Kula Geopark became Turkey's first geopark candidate of European Geoparks Network and UNESCO in March 2013. In September 2013, it was accepted as the country's first and only geopark by the European and the UNESCO-assisted

Global Geoparks Network UNESCO Global Geoparks (UGGp) are geoparks certified by the UNESCO Global Geoparks Council as meeting all the requirements for belonging to the Global Geoparks Network (GGN). The GGN is both a network of geoparks and the agency of the United Nati ...

. In June 2013, the geopark was opened to tourism after construction of facilities including walkways and a

visitor center A visitor center or centre (see American and British English spelling differences), visitor information center or tourist information centre is a physical location that provides information to tourists. Types A visitor center may be a Civic c ...

. The more than long trails equipped with information panels connect the most interesting geosites in the geopark. The visitor center is an information center for tourists and a natural history museum for education in geology.

Geology

The geological structure of the geopark is of a complex nature and is caused by the active

tectonics Tectonics ( via Latin ) are the processes that result in the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. The field of ''planetary tectonics'' extends the concept to other planets and moons. These processes ...

of the

Aegean region The Aegean region () is one of the 7 Geographical regions of Turkey, geographical regions of Turkey. The largest city in the region is İzmir. Other big cities are Manisa, Aydın, Denizli, Muğla, Afyonkarahisar and Kütahya. Located in w ...

. It is one of the geologically youngest volcanic fields in Turkey. Three phases of eruption took place in the

volcanism Volcanism, vulcanism, volcanicity, or volcanic activity is the phenomenon where solids, liquids, gases, and their mixtures erupt to the surface of a solid-surface astronomical body such as a planet or a moon. It is caused by the presence of a he ...

of the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

period, some 1.1 million, 300 thousand and 15 thousand years ago.

Cones and craters

There are 80

scoria cone A cinder cone or scoria cone is a steep, conical landform of loose pyroclastic fragments, such as volcanic ash, clinkers, or scoria that has been built around a volcanic vent. The pyroclastic fragments are formed by explosive eruptions or l ...

s and five

maar A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater caused by a phreatomagmatic eruption (an explosion which occurs when groundwater comes into contact with hot lava or magma). A maar characteristically fills with water to form a relatively shallow ...

s in the geopark. The height of the small-sized scoria cones does not exceed .

Lava caves and lava tubes

Lava tube A lava tube, more rarely called a pyroduct, is a 'roofed conduit through which molten lava travels away from its vent'. If lava in the tube drains out, it will leave an empty cave. Lava tubes are common in low-viscosity volcanic systems. La ...

s or caves were formed by

lava flow Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a Natural satellite, moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a Fissure vent, fractu ...

along its way. Lava tubes are formed when an active low-

viscosity Viscosity is a measure of a fluid's rate-dependent drag (physics), resistance to a change in shape or to movement of its neighboring portions relative to one another. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of ''thickness''; for e ...

lava flow solidifies and forms a hard crust roof above the still-flowing lava stream. While some lava caves are easily accessible, others can be entered only with specialized

caving equipment Caving equipment is equipment used by cavers and speleologists to aid and protect them while exploring caves. The term may also be used to refer to equipment used to document caves, such as photographic and surveying equipment. Originally, cav ...

Basalt columns

Characteristic

basalt column 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 a ...

s, called "Burgaz

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

s" (tower volcanics) are formed in the first stage of lava flow. When thick lava flow cools rapidly, contraction forces build up. While shrinking in the vertical direction does not form fractures, a network of fractures formed by horizontal shrinkage develop basalt columns. Basalt columns in the villages Sarnıç and Çakırca are higher than .

Hoodoos

There are hoodoos situated on the

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

state highway D300/ E96 near Yurtbaşı village. They are formed when relatively soft rock is topped by harder stone; the softer rock is washed away by atmospheric factors, leaving a capping of the harder material which is more resistant to erosion. The formation process is ongoing, and while some hoodoos fall down, new ones are being formed.

Prehistoric footprints

In 1954, during road construction works near the Çakallar Volcanic Cone, more than 200 fossilized footprints were unearthed. Only a few of these footprints remain on the scene. It is considered that the footprints belong to three people walking on a slope. The age analyses indicate that the footprints are 10,000–12,000 years old corresponding to the

Mesolithic Anatolia The prehistory of Anatolia stretches from the Paleolithic era through to the appearance of classical civilization in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. It is generally regarded as being divided into three ages reflecting the dominant materia ...

. These traces, which bear witness to one of the oldest interactions of human and active volcanoes in

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

are very important for scientific and educational reasons.

References

External links

*{{official website, https://kulasalihligeopark.com Geoparks in Turkey Tourist attractions in Manisa Province Protected areas established in 2013 2013 establishments in Turkey Volcanic fields Kula, Manisa Salihli