International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(15): 303-321 (2010) CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 © InternationalJournal.org The Noticeable Geomorphosites of Turkey Deniz Ekinci, Istanbul University, Turkey Abstract Geomorphosites are landforms to which the society confers a certain value for scientific, but also cultural, ecological, aesthetic or economic reasons. Geomorphosites, geomorphoheritage, geomorphotourism are widely used terms in many countries, but are still scarcely mentioned in Turkey. The value of geomorphosites is poorly known to the public and to scientists from other disciplines. However many natural landscapes are preserved throughout Turkey due to their cultural and historical values as well as for their environmental importance. In particular, geomorphosites make opportunities for education, recreation and tourism. Thus, geomorphosites offer as a potential for sustainable tourism, education and landscape appreciation. As it is state, tourism is the largest economic sector in terms of earnings and in number of people employed among Turkey. As the Word Tourism Organization defines it, sustainable tourism should make optimal use of environmental resources, respect the sociocultural authenticity of host communities, and ensure viable, long term economic operations, providing socioeconomic benefits to all stakeholders. The issue of sustainable and responsible tourism can be tackled, with good hopes for success, by favoring an easy understanding and comprehension of the landscape. This approach represents the most correct mean of environment and tourism. The main objective of this study is to improve knowledge and assessment of geomorphological sites, with particular emphasis on conservation, education and tourism attractively in respect to Turkey. This paper also presents the conspicuous geomorphosite inventory of different types of relief, and namely, structural-erosional, karstic, rivererosional, erosional-denudated, glacial, seacoast landforms, sandstone beehives, limestone caves, crags and cliffs, peaks and ranges, saltpans and desert dunes, and gorges are present. This present consisted in a preliminary identification of important geomorphosites such as terrace, travertine, cave, canyon, landform and mountain that need to be protected for a rational and sustainable use. In order to describe and evaluate the geomorphological heritage of Turkey, some geomorphosites have been selected comprising karst, carbonate depositional, fluvial, structural and volcanic landforms. The results of this research have been summarized in a thematic map, representing the geomorphosites related to various landscape units. Keywords: Geomorphosites, Turkey, Bosporus, Cappadocia, Travertines at Pamukkale Introduction This article presents a panoramic analysis of geomorphotourism in Turkey with special references. As ıt known tourism is the largest economic sector in terms of earnings and in International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(15): 303-321 (2010) CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 © InternationalJournal.org number of people employed among morphological areas. In addition, tourism particularly sea tourism in Turkey has become a mass industry concentrated in the western and southern coastal areas (TÜRSAB, 1996). At the end of the millennium Turkey is ranked 19th of the most visited countries in the world (TÜRSAB, 2000). Most visitors are attracted by its 9000 km of coast, but central Anatolia with the two natural highlights of Cappadocia and Pamukkale are also focuses of attention (Seckelmann, 2002). Geomorphotourism is a segment of tourism that has been developed worldwide and emerging as a new global phenomenon in recent years. It is a form of special interest tourism and focuses on morphological features and the types of landscapes. In addition, Geomorphotourism is sustainable tourism with a primary focus on experiencing the landform types in a way that fosters geomorphological and cultural understanding, appreciation and preservation, and is locally advantageous (Dowling, 2008). Whichever way it is defined, the ‘geomorpho’ part in geomorphotourism means geomorphology. Geomorphology is the study of landforms. It explains generating and developing with processes of landforms. The ‘tourism’ part means visiting, learning from, appreciating and engaging in geomorphosites. Overall, geomorphotourism contains the geomorphological elements of ‘form and process’ combined with the components of tourism such as attractions, accommodation, tours, activities, interpretation and planning and management. Morphological features due to tourism activities are among the most important geomorphosites of Turkey. Turkey has river, glacial, periglacial, semi-arid landforms, coastal relief, volcanic and karstic structures including springs, caves and exogenic features, gorges and widespread river deposits, etc… As a result, Turkey has a big geomorphotourism potential. According to all of the glorious morphological features, they are not used for tourism, moreover geomorphotourism hasn’t developed and widely known until 2000. In fact, since long time ago people come to visit “geomorphological wonders”, like mountains, caves, volcanoes, travertines, canyons and of Turkey. However, only in recent times, there was a challenge for this sector and geomorphotourism in Turkey has begun to increase its awareness and importance. Therefore, this niche of tourism has been growing in Turkey like in many other countries in the last years. This paper is to provide a brief overview of geomorphotourism in Turkey. It tries to present general information about Turkey’s mainly geomorphotourism elements and places where they occur, as well as some examples. Therefore, the aim of this study is to demonstrate noticeable Geomorphosites of Turkey with some example as high quality destinations for alternative sustainable tourism. However, it is clear that the future development of geomorphotourism particularly as a morphological heritage requires a comprehensive inventory and detailed planning. Location Turkey is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. Turkey shares borders with Greece and Bulgaria in Europe, with Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria in the Asia. Occupying an area of 814,578 square kilometers including 9,820 square kilometers of water and is surrounded by about 9,000 kilometers of coastline on the Mediterranean Sea, Aegean International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(15): 303-321 (2010) CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 © InternationalJournal.org Sea, Black Sea, and Sea of Marmara.. The country covers the whole Anatolian Peninsula, Thrace and islands in the Marmara and Aegean Seas (Figure 1). Anatolia, which comprises the bulk of Turkish territory, is a peninsula in western Asia situated between the Black Sea to the north and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Thrace, the western, European segment of Turkey, forms the southeastern extremity of Europe, east of Bulgaria and Greece. Some 8 percent of Turkey’s territory is in Thrace. The Sea of Marmara and the strategic Dardanelles and Bosporus straits separate Thrace and Anatolia. Figure 1. Location map of Turkey General Features of Turkey via Geomorphosites Climatic conditions vary considerably from region to region. The Aegean and Mediterranean coastal regions have cool, rainy winters and hot, moderately dry summers, with annual precipitation ranging from 500 to 1,300 millimeters. The Black Sea coastal region, whose temperature range is lower than the other coastal regions, has the heaviest rainfall in Turkey, averaging 1,450 millimeters per year. Because it is blocked from the sea by Turkey’s mountain ranges, the Anatolian Plateau has a severely continental climate, with cold in the winter and heat in summer. Rainfall there is very sparse in summer, but snowfall in winter is heavy. Annual precipitation averages 600 millimeters. The eastern highlands have hot, dry summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. Turkey’s longest river is Kızılırmak with 1,355 km. and after its 1,263 km of the Euphrates River and 523 km of the Tigris both of which originates in Turkey. Turkey, owing to its location in the tectonically active Alpine Himalayan belt, is characterized by a widespread geothermal activity manifesting itself in the form of numerous hot springs, fumaroles and recent mineralization. Turkey is a country with a large number of geothermal fields, especially in its western region. The presence of more than 500 hot springs, with discharge temperatures up to 100 °C. Some are of high temperature, such as Kızıldere (242 °C) and Germencik (232 °C), but most are of lower temperatures, such as Denizli-Pamukkale (36 °C) and Karahayit (59 °C) (Simsek, 1985; 1990). International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(15): 303-321 (2010) CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 © InternationalJournal.org Turkey creates natural attractions which include varied and unspoiled landscapes with mountains, forests, rivers, and lakes. Turkey, which is located in the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt, has a very rugged and high topographic structure. The geological structure in Turkey is complex. Main causes of these situations are related to orogenic movements that occurred during the Cenozoic Era and epirogenic and volcanic activities that took place between the Tertiary and Quaternary times. Turkey’s extremities are divided into the Black Sea coastline region, the Aegean coastline region, the Mediterranean coastline region, and the Arabian Platform along the