Cappadocia section of the Kızılırmak River valley, the longest river completely within the borders of Turkey (1355 km). The Kızılırmak also known as the Halys River is the longest river in Turkey among the rivers which originates and ends in Turkey (both origin and mouth being in Turkey).
Kızılırmak river, the longest wholly within Turkey. It rises in the Kızıl Mountains in north-central Anatolia at an elevation of about 6,500 feet and flows southwest, past the towns of Zara and Sivas. It then turns northward in a great crescent-shaped bend, where it breaks through the Pontic Mountains and flows into the Black Sea between Sinop and Samsun after a total course of about 734 miles.
The Hittites called it the Maraššantiya. It formed the western boundary of Hatti, the core land of the Hittite empire. In Classical Antiquity, it was the boundary between Asia Minor and the rest of Asia, and also the boundary between Pontos and Paphlagonia.
As the site of the Battle of Halys or Battle of the Eclipse on May 28, 585 BC, it was the border between Lydia to the west and Media to the east until Croesus of Lydia crossed it to attack Cyrus the Great in 547 BC. He was defeated and Persia expanded to the Aegean Sea.
Ancient Halys River (Kizilirmak River). The Halys River is the chief river of Anatolia, it rises in the Anti-Taurus mountain range and flows 734 miles into the Black Sea.
Kizil-Irmak River the greatest river of Asia Minor, rising in the Anti-Taurus range of mountains, on the borders of Armenia Minor and Pontus, and after flowing through Cappadocia and Galatia, and dividing Paphlagonia from Pontus, falling into the Euxine Sea between Sinopé and Amisus. In early times it divided the Indo-European races which peopled the western part of Asia Minor from the Semitic (Syro-Arabian) races of the rest of southwest Asia; and it separated the Lydian Empire from the Medo-Persian.
Kizilirmak River is the longest river in Turkey and it does not only separate the town from other parts of Cappadocia.
Along the Kizilirmak River in town was one of the highlights of our Cappadocia visit.
Kizilirmak River is the longest river of Turkey (1,355 km long).
The Kizilirmak River which rises and ends within the country and born from Kizildag mountains in the northeast of Central Anatolia, passes the cities from Sivas, Kayseri, Nevsehir, Kirsehir, Kirikkale, Ankara, Cankiri, Corum and Samsun provinces, reaching the Black Sea at Bafra. Some of the dams built on Kizilirmak are; Kesikköprü, Hirfanli, Kapulukaya, Altinkaya and Derbent.