Sarayköy 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 379 km², and its population is 30,834 (2022). It is 20 km west of the city of

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 ...

, on a plain between mountains and watered by

Büyük Menderes River The Büyük Menderes River ("Great Meander", historically the Maeander or Meander, from Ancient Greek: Μαίανδρος, ''Maíandros''; ), is a river in southwestern Turkey. It rises in west central Turkey near Dinar before flowing west thr ...

. Sarayköy is at a high altitude inland from the

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 east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

and thus has hot dry summers and very cold winters. The mountain sides are mostly bare but there are ongoing forestry projects.

History

The town was previously a village named ''Sarıbey'' after the Turkmen lord that settled his tribe here in the 14th century. Sarayköy was an important point of resistance to the

Greek Army The Hellenic Army (, sometimes abbreviated as ΕΣ), formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece. The term '' Hellenic'' is the endogenous synonym for ''Greek''. The Hellenic Army is the largest of the three branches of the Hellenic Armed F ...

in the

Turkish War of Independence , strength1 = May 1919: 35,000November 1920: 86,000Turkish General Staff, ''Türk İstiklal Harbinde Batı Cephesi'', Edition II, Part 2, Ankara 1999, p. 225August 1922: 271,000Celâl Erikan, Rıdvan Akın: ''Kurtuluş Savaşı tarih ...

. Volunteers assembled here were able to defend the bridge across the River Menderes and thus prevent the

Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...

from occupying the city of

. There is a statue in the town of a fighter in local

efe Agencia EFE, S.A. () is a Spanish international news agency, the major Spanish language, Spanish-language multimedia news agency and the world's fourth largest wire service after the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. EFE was ...

costume to commemorate this struggle.

Composition

There are 32

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 Sarayköy District:Mahalle
Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 12 July 2023. * Acıdere * Acısu * Adaköy * Ahmetli * Altıntepe * Aşağı * Atatürk * Bala *

Beylerbeyi Beylerbeyi is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of Üsküdar, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its population is 5,168 (2022). It is located on the Asian shore of the Bosporus, to the north of the Bosphorus Bridge. It is bordered on the ...

* Caber * Cumhuriyet * Duacılı * Gerali * Hasköy * Hisarköy * Kabaağaç * Karakıran *

Karataş Karataş (Turkish language, Turkish for ''black stone'') is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Adana Province, Turkey. Its area is 862 km2, and its population is 23,499 (2022). The town itself has 10,293 inhabitants. It is o ...

* Köprübaşı *

Kumluca Kumluca is a municipality and district of Antalya Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,225 km2, and its population is 73,496 (2022). It lies on the Mediterranean coast, and is part of the Turkish Riviera. Kumluca is located west of the city of ...

* Sakarya * Sazak * Sığma * Tekke * Tepeköy * Tırkaz * Tosunlar * Trafo * Turan * Uyanık * Yakayurt * Yeşilyurt

Sarayköy today

The major activity of the area is textile production (following in the footsteps of nearby Babadağ), mainly weaving but some printing and sewing of bedding and other home textiles. 5,000 homes in the town are heated with water run off from the geothermal power station in the village of Kızıldere, which was the first plant of its kind in Turkey. There are also plants near the power station making dry ice and bottling carbon dioxide. The plain is irrigated and mostly used for growing cotton and there is a large cotton storage and processing plant in the town. Other crops include figs, olives and apricots. Other activities include limestone quarrying and coal mining. Sarayköy is also a market town for the surrounding countryside.

Places of interest

* The Ahmetli Bridge over the Büyük Menderes river, 15 km from Sarayköy township, dates back to the Roman era. The middle section of the bridge was blown up by the

as a defensive measure during the Greco-Turkish War but was reconstructed with reinforced concrete later on.

Notable natives

Sezen Aksu Sezen Aksu (; born Fatma Sezen Yıldırım; 13 July 1954) is a Turkish singer, songwriter and producer. She is one of the most successful Turkish people, Turkish singers, having sold over 40 million albums worldwide. Her nicknames include the "Q ...

, Turkey's leading modern singer and songwriter was born in Sarayköy.

References

External links

Thermal Resort & Spa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saraykoy Populated places in Denizli Province Districts of Denizli Province Metropolitan district municipalities in Turkey