Babadağ, formerly ''Kadıköy'', is a highland town and district of

Denizli Province Denizli Province ( tr, ) is a province of Turkey in Western Anatolia, on high ground above the Aegean coast. Neighbouring provinces are Uşak to the north, Burdur, Isparta, Afyon to the east, Aydın, Manisa to the west and Muğla to the south. ...

in the Aegean region of

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 ...

, reached by a steep, winding road uphill from the town of

Sarayköy Sarayköy is a town and district of Denizli Province in Turkey, 20 km west of the city of Denizli, on a plain between mountains and watered by Büyük Menderes River. The area is around 470 km², and the population (2010) is 29,854 of wh ...

. It was known in antiquity as Salbacos. Agriculture is hard on this mountainside and thus the people have been making a living from stitching clothing in Babadağ for a long time, and others have migrated to

Denizli Denizli is an industrial city in the southwestern part of Turkey and the eastern end of the alluvial valley formed by the river Büyük Menderes, where the plain reaches an elevation of about . Denizli is located in the country's Aegean Region. ...

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban agglo ...

and

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. Thus this is the hometown of many of Denizli's successful traders and textile entrepreneurs. ''Babadağ dollar'' is Denizli slang for the expression ''my word is my bond''. There are still active workshops in the town, which is also a popular mountain summer holiday location. The area is characterized by the existence of geological fault zones, which have contributed in the past to the occurrence of many landslides. There was also a high risk of landslides in town, which led the government to evacuate Gündoğdu, a steeply sloped urban district of Babadağ, in 2006. The homes of about 2000 persons were destroyed to prevent uncontrolled return of their former inhabitants, many of whom relocated to newly built houses in the provincial capital Denizli. In 2019, a large wind park was built on the mountain crest southwest of Babadağ. The towers are visible from many locations in town. The wind park runs along the border between the provinces

und

Aydın Aydın ( ''EYE-din''; ; formerly named ''Güzelhisar'', Ancient and Modern Greek: Τράλλεις /''Tralleis''/) is a city in and the seat of Aydın Province in Turkey's Aegean Region. The city is located at the heart of the lower valley of B ...

and is known as Denizli Wind Power Plant. It consists of 22

wind turbines A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

with a total installed power of 74.8 MW. The project was co-financed by the

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is an international financial institution founded in 1991. As a multilateral developmental investment bank, the EBRD uses investment as a tool to build market economies. Initially focus ...

. The plant was built by

Siemens Gamesa Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy S.A., formerly Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica S.A. () and Grupo Auxiliar Metalúrgico S.A., is a Spanish-German wind engineering company based in Zamudio, Biscay, Spain. In Spain, the company has two other main ...

and went on the power grid in 2019/2020. It is operated by the Turkish company Akfen Renewable Energy as part of

Akfen Holding Akfen Holding, is a Turkey-based and infrastructure investments oriented holding company which was founded in 1976 by Hamdi Akın and earned its status as a holding in 1999. Industrial Branches in which the Company Is Active * Airport Manageme ...

Notable natives

Hacı Mehmet Zorlu Hacı Mehmet Zorlu (1919 in Babadağ, Denizli – May 7, 2005 in Istanbul) was the founder of Zorlu Holding, one of the biggest group of companies in Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cu ...

(1919 in Babadağ, Denizli – 7. Mai 2005 in Istanbul), originally a weaver, later founder of a company dealing in textiles, from which the conglomerate

Zorlu Holding Zorlu Holding is a Turkish multinational conglomerate holding specialized in textiles, white goods, electronics manufacturing, energy, and financial services. Zorlu Holding is headquartered in Istanbul. History The Zorlu group was founded by Ha ...

developed, one of the largest industry enterprises in Turkey. *

Ahmet Nazif Zorlu Ahmet Nazif Zorlu (botn 28 August 1944 in Babadağ, Turkey) is a Turkish businessman, a billionaire and chairman of Zorlu Holding. Biography Zorlu began working in the business of his father Hacı Mehmet Zorlu, a textile factory. Ahmet Naz ...

(* 1944), son of Mehmet Zorlu, in 2021 Chairman of the Board of Zorlu Holding. * Zeki Zorlu (* 1939), son of Mehmet Zorlu, in 2021 Vice Chairman of Zorlu Holding.

Photographs

Babadag_northern_access_road.jpg, Babadağ from the north (picture taken in 2021 on Babadağ Sarayköy Yolu). On the mountain crest in the background, one sees the towers of the wind park. Babadag_northern_gorge.jpg, Eastern slope of the gorge in the north of Babadağ (picture taken at the cemetery which is located at the northern entrance to town) Badag_central north.jpg, Houses in Mehmet Özer Cd. in the northern central district of town (2021) Babadag_southeast.jpg, Ward on Istiklal Cd. on the southeastern end of Babadağ (2021) Babadag_evacuated-quarter.jpg, The evacuated region of Gündoğdu (central eastern part of town, 2021) Babadag_southwest.jpg, New houses on Hacı Mehmet Zorlu Cd. in the southwest part of town (2021) to which several of the evacuated families relocated from Denizli.

Neighbourhoods

* Ahıllı () * Bekirler () * Demirli () * Kelleci () * Kıranyer () * Mollaaahmetler () * Oğuzlar () * Yeniköy () * İncirpınar ()

References

* Populated places in Denizli Province Districts of Denizli Province {{Denizli-geo-stub