Babadağ, formerly ''Kadıköy'', is a municipality and

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Denizli Province Denizli Province () () is a province and metropolitan municipality 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 t ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Its area is 124 km², and its population is 6,340 (2022). It is a highland town, reached by a steep, winding road uphill from the town of

Sarayköy Sarayköy is a municipality and district of Denizli Province, Turkey. Its area is 379 km2, and its population is 30,834 (2022). It is 20 km west of the city of Denizli, on a plain between mountains and watered by Büyük Menderes River. ...

. 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 a city in Aegean Region, Aegean Turkey, and seat of the province of Denizli Province, Denizli. The city forms the urban part of the districts Merkezefendi and Pamukkale, Denizli, Pamukkale, with a population of 691 783 in 2024. Denizl ...

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 ...

and

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. 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; Greek: Τράλλεις)'' 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 Büyük Menderes River (ancient ...

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, were generating over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each y ...

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, shortened to EBRD ( French: ''Banque européenne pour la reconstruction et le développement'' or ''BERD''), is an international financial institution founded in 1991 in Paris. As a multilat ...

. The plant was built by

Siemens Gamesa Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, S.A. was formed in 2017 in a merger of Siemens AG, Siemens' Wind Power division with Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica, S.A.; it is a Spanish-German wind engineering company based in Zamudio, Biscay, Spain. The co ...

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 an infrastructure focused conglomerate based in Turkey, founded in 1976 by Hamdi Akın and earned its status as a holding company in 1999. The group often partners with leading multinationals and organizations like PSA Internat ...

Composition

There are 12

neighbourhoods A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

in Babadağ District: * Ahıllı * Bekirler * Cumhuriyet * Demirli * Gazi * Gündoğdu * İncirpınar * Kelleci * Kıranyer * Mollaahmetler * Oğuzlar * Yeniköy

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, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in An ...

(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 ...

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 He attended primary school at Gazi İlkokulu in Izmir. Zorlu began working in the business of his f ...

(* 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.

Gallery

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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Babadag, Denizli Populated places in Denizli Province Districts of Denizli Province Metropolitan district municipalities in Turkey