Yatağan is a town and district of

Muğla Province Muğla Province ( tr, , ) is a province of Turkey, at the country's south-western corner, on the Aegean Sea. Its seat is Muğla, about inland, while some of Turkey's largest holiday resorts, such as Bodrum, Ölüdeniz, Marmaris and Fethiye, are ...

in 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 ...

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 ...

, about to north of

Muğla Muğla () is a city in southwestern Turkey. The city is the center of the District of Menteşe and Muğla Province, which stretches along Turkey's Aegean coast. Muğla's center is situated inland at an altitude of 660 m and lies at a dista ...

Sights of interest

Situated in the heart of ancient

Caria Caria (; from Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; tr, Karya) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionians, Ionian and Dorians, Dorian Greeks colonized the west of i ...

and, during the 13th - 14th centuries, of the territory of the

Anatolian beylik Anatolian beyliks ( tr, Anadolu beylikleri, Ottoman Turkish: ''Tavâif-i mülûk'', ''Beylik'' ) were small principalities (or petty kingdoms) in Anatolia governed by beys, the first of which were founded at the end of the 11th century. A secon ...

of Menteşe, the district has several localities of interest rich in history. The region is also covered in large part by

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

pine forests. At a distance of to the west of the district center, in the direction of

Milas Milas ( grc, Μύλασα, Mylasa) 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 ter ...

, is the ancient site of Stratonikeia, in the present-day village of Eskihisar, and at walking distance from the ancient city is its

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a saf ...

Lagina Lagina ( grc, Λάγινα) or Laginia (Λαγινία) was a town in the territory of Stratonicea, in ancient Caria. It contained an important temple of Hecate, at which every year great festivals were celebrated. Tacitus, when speaking of the ...

, near the present-day township of Turgut. Turgut was called Leyne officially until recent date and is still called as such locally. Another spot of interest is the village of Çaybükü on the road to Muğla. The village has an old and restored

coffee house A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non- ...

, ''Belen Kahvesi'', mentioned in a nationally renowned song called ''"Ormancı"'', which has as theme a tragic event that took place there in 1946. The coffee house is a tourist attraction today both because of the curiosity aroused by the song and also due to its views of the surrounding plain. Once again, Çaybükü had a different official name, Gevenes, until the 1950s and that name is still used locally. An unsuccessful petition was even made by the inhabitants in 2006 for a return to the former name, but while the Ministry of Interior Affairs could accept Geven, it did accept Gevenes. The village is referred to by name in the song, under its former official name of Gevenes.

Yatağan Power Plant

Since the 1990s the town has attracted world attention due to the ecological pollution by the nearby

Yatağan Thermal Power Plant The yatagan, yataghan or ataghan (from Turkish language, Turkish ''yatağan''), also called varsak, is a type of Ottoman Empire, Ottoman knife or short sabre used from the mid-16th to late 19th centuries. The yatagan was extensively used in Otto ...

, one of the largest Turkey's coal-burning

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many pow ...

, built in 1976. There have been campaigns to shut it down by

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

since 1994, and several shutdown court orders have been issued, only to be overruled or ignored because of the energy shortage.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yatagan, Mugla Populated places in Muğla Province Districts of Muğla Province

Sights of interest

Yatağan Power Plant

See also

References

External links