Guide
Kız Tepesi covers 542 hectares in the Nallıhan district of Ankara and was registered as a natural monument on 23 September 2019. Unlike most natural monuments in Türkiye, which are single trees, this one is a landform: it was designated for the colours of its earth.
Those colours have an explanation. The brown and red tones come from the oxidation of iron and the minerals it forms; the grey and dark grey tones come from organic material that settled with the sediment. What the hillside exposes is a thick sequence laid down in a former lake. The sediments deposited there, together with the remains of creatures living in the lake at the time and of plants growing around it, allow the climate, tectonics and environment of that period to be reconstructed — which is why a great many Turkish and foreign researchers have worked here, and why the Directorate describes the site as a geological heritage of importance both scientifically and for visitors.
The monument adjoins the Nallıhan bird sanctuary and shares its habitat characteristics, including the locally endemic grape hyacinth Muscari adili.
Access is by private vehicle. The site is 109 kilometres from Ankara and 27 from Nallıhan, reached from the Ankara–Nallıhan D140 road by the Akçabayır turning at the Kaya Burnu locality; Akçabayır, part of the Davutoğlan neighbourhood, is the nearest settlement at about a kilometre away.
- Designated
- 13.10.2019
Entry fee
- Marmara group 3 · category 3 · Per person
- 35 ₺
