Çiftehan is a resort village in

Ulukışla District Ulukışla District is a district of the Niğde Province of Turkey. Its seat is the town of Ulukışla.Niğde Province Niğde Province ( tr, ) is a Provinces of Turkey, province in the southern part of Central Anatolia, Turkey. Population is 341,412 (2013 est) of which 141,360 live in the city of Niğde. The population was 348,081 in 2000 and 305,861 in 1990. It ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. Its population is 958 (2022). Before the 2013 reorganisation, it was a town (''

belde Belde (literally "town", also known as ''kasaba'') means "large village with a municipality" in Turkish. All Turkish province centers and district centers have municipalities, but the villages (and also subdistricts) are usually too small to have ...

'').

Geography

Çiftehan is in the

Toros Mountains The Taurus Mountains (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Toros Dağları'' or ''Toroslar'') are a mountain range, mountain complex in southern Turkey, separating the Mediterranean Region, Turkey, Mediterranean coastal region from the central Anatolia# ...

at an altitude of about , north of the main passage of the mountain system known as

Cilician Gates The Cilician Gates or Gülek Pass is a pass through the Taurus Mountains connecting the low plains of Cilicia to the Anatolian Plateau, by way of the narrow gorge of the Gökoluk River. Its highest elevation is about 1000m. The Cilician Gates hav ...

( tr, Gülek Boğazı). It is east of Ulukışla and south of

Niğde Niğde (; grc, Νίγδη; Hittite: Nahita, Naxita) is a city and the capital of Niğde province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey at an elevation of 1,299 m. In 2017 the city population was 141,010 people. The city is small with plenty ...

History

The vicinity was the southern gate of the

Roman Province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

Cappadocia Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Revo ...

. A Roman settlement sprung up named Aquae Calidae (meaning 'hot waters' for the nearby thermal springs). The thermal baths around were famous during

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

era and according to unproven claims

Cleopatra VII Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...

of Ptolemaic Egypt also visited the baths. The spa pools constructed by the

Seljuk Turks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turk ...

(11th century-13th century) still survive. But there were no permanent settlements.Mayor's page
/ref> The village was formed as recently as the first half of the 20th century and after the rapid increase of population the village was declared town.

Economy

Because of intense forests around Çiftehan, the agricultural income is low. The main economic activity of the town is domestic tourism based on hot springs. There are many spa hotels. The advantage of the town is its location on the D.750 state road connecting

Central Anatolia The Central Anatolia Region ( tr, İç Anadolu Bölgesi) is a geographical region of Turkey. The largest city in the region is Ankara. Other big cities are Konya, Kayseri, Eskişehir, Sivas, and Aksaray. Located in Central Turkey, it is bordered ...

Mediterranean Region In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and wa ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciftehan Spa towns in Turkey Tourist attractions in Niğde Province Villages in Ulukışla District