Osmancık

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Osmancık is a district of Çorum Province in central Turkey, located at 59 km north of the city of Çorum.

Contents

[edit] Geography

Located on an important crossing of the River Kızılırmak on the ancient Silk Road to the orient, Osmancık has long had a strategic value, and is still today a popular stopping-place on the road from Istanbul to the Black Sea city of Samsun and further east.

Today Osmancık is known for its rice production, being especially suitable for a new strain of rice developed especially for the region by the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and named "Osmancık-97".

The North Anatolian geological fault line runs right through the valley, and Osmancık is very vulnerable to earthquakes.

[edit] History

The area was settled by the Kayı clan of the Oghuz Turks as they migrated westwards into Anatolia from their heartland of Central Asia.

[edit] Notable natives

  • Osmancıklı İmamzade Halil Paşa - 15th century Ottoman statesman, in the court of Mehmed I.
  • Osmancıklı (Amasyalı) Koca Mehmed Nizamüddin Paşa - 15th century Ottoman statesman.
  • Pakçemüezzin Baltacı Mehmed Paşa - 18th century Ottoman statesman, rumoured to have been a lover of Catherine I of Russia.

[edit] Places of interest

  • In the village of Ardıç to the west of Osmancık there is a road cut by the Ancient Romans through a rock named Çalınkaya.
  • Koyunbaba bridge over the Kızılırmak, built in 1489.
  • The Seljuk Turk castle of Kandiber, in the town centre.
  • The Ottoman period tomb of Sufi mystic Koyunbaba.
  • The Trojan war hero Achilles was said to have been finally buried on the hill of Adatepe.


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