The Evliya Çelebi Way is a cultural trekking rout in northwest Turkey proposed to celebration of the 400th anniversary of the 1611 birth of the eponymous Ottoman traveller. Evliya Çelebi travelled the Ottoman Empire and beyond for some 40 years, leaving a 10 volume account of his journeys. [1][2]
Contents |
The envisioned Evliya Çelebi Way trek includes a 1,000 km long ride by horse, labeled the Evliya Çelebi Ride. It followed the early stages of the route Evliya Çelebi took in 1671 when he set out on his hajj. The ride began at Hersek (a village in Altınova district), on the south coast of the Izmit Gulf, tracing his rout via Iznik, Yenişehir, Aksu, Inegöl, Tavşanlı, Kütahya (his ancestral home), Afyon, Uşak, Gediz, and Simav. Heavily-urbanised sections of his route through Istanbul and Bursa were omitted. [3]
The Evliya Çelebi Way was inaugurated in autumn 2009 by a group of Turkish and British academics and horsemen who undertook the Evliya Çelebi Ride. A guidebook is scheduled to appear in 2011. [4]