Boyabat

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Boyabat is a town and a district of Sinop Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey.

Boyabat has a population of some twenty thousand in the town itself. The town is in the Gökirmak valley located 100km south of Sinop over the mountain range along the Black Sea coast.

The town is the trade hub for over a hundred villages around it. Of larger centers nearby, up the Gökirmak ("blue river") valley to the west is Kastamonu, down the Gökirmak and later Kızıl River valley to the east you find Samsun.

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[edit] Name

The name Boyabat is said to consist of "boy" which means border and "abad" which means town. It bears witness to the fact that the border between the Byzantine empire and the empire of the Seljuk Turks was once here.

[edit] History

Boyabat town was built below a castle which probably has not been in serious use since around 1300 A.D. but may be as old as 2800 years. The older history of Boyabat may have started from bronze age, and it may have been ruled by Kaskians, Hittites, Paphlagonians, Persians, Lydians, Pontus kingdom, and Romans.

The area has since been under the rule of several turkish states (: Danişmendli, Seljuk, Pervaneogullari, Candaroglular), Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic and has been spared from major military conflicts and battles on its territory for at least 500 years.

[edit] Today

The main income source of the area is agriculture, animal keeping, and some forest related activities. Of agricultural produce Boyabat is renowned for its rice. Rice fields cover the bottom of Gökirmak and Kizilirmak valleys.

The town boasts with some local industry, notably brick, tiles, and ceramic production, unhusking and polishing of rice, and tanning.

Mondays a weekly bazaar is held in Boyabat center and the town overflows with farmers and merchants of the area. A larger yearly event "Panayir" (fair) is held in autumn just outside town. It lasts several days and attracts participants from a much larger area.

Kazdere, a tributary of Gökirmak, passes through the town. It cuts the rock that the castle is perched on with a dramatic pair of vertical walls. The wall on the castle side has a window on the rock face possibly illuminating descending tunnels for water supply and safe passage during siege.

The local character of Boyabat is reflected in the characteristic old houses, handwoven traditional scarves popular among the farmer ladies and woodprint scarves among town ladies. Davul and zurna music is the hallmark of weddings. They lead processions through the town carrying gifts to the wedding house. On arrival, the drummer in full traditional drummer outfit performs a drumplaying dance to the music of zurna. Another Boyabat tradition kept alive is the whole grilled lamb kebab served in special restaurants. Village weddings and the panayir /fair also include a wrestling championship performed to the tune of Davul and zurna, playing non-stop epic "Koroglu" melodies.

Like every other similar town in Turkey, major portion of people originating from Boyabat live in large metropolitan centers, mainly Istanbul some 650km or a 10 hours bus ride away.

During the latest decades Boyabat town itself has also expanded greatly by the building of apartment rises. The plan of the city is altered by a wide throughfare which also attracted arenas of business out from the old shopping district.

The countryside around has also seen dramatic changes. A belt of planted pine forests, a dry canal diverting flash fluds away from town center, factories in the plains west of the town etc..

A dam on Kızıl River near Duragan, another under planning just upriver, a tunnel to avoid the highest peak of the mountain pass towards Sinop are major constructions in the area.

[edit] External links


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