Eğirdir

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Eğirdir
Eğirdir
Coordinates: 37°52′30″N 30°51′02″E / 37.87500°N 30.85056°E / 37.87500; 30.85056Coordinates: 37°52′30″N 30°51′02″E / 37.87500°N 30.85056°E / 37.87500; 30.85056
Country Turkey
Province Isparta
District Eğirdir
Government
 • Mayor Osman Nuri Özmeral
 • Kaymakam Yalçın Yilmaz
Area[1]
 • District 1,519.62 km2 (586.73 sq mi)
Population (2012)[2]
 • Urban 16,891
 • District 33,686
 • District Density 22/km2 (57/sq mi)
Post code 32500
Website www.egirdir.bel.tr
Lake Eğirdir with the town on the left and the two islands with the causeway.

Eğirdir is a town and district of Isparta Province in the Mediterranean region of Turkey.

History

The town and the lake were formerly called Eğridir, a Turkish pronunciation of the town's old Greek name Akrotiri. However, Eğridir means "it is crooked" in Turkish, and therefore, to remove the negative connotations of the name, in the 1980s the “i” and the “r” were transposed in a new official name, thus creating Eğirdir, a name that evokes spinning and flowers, although many people in Turkey still call both the town and the nearby Lake Eğirdir by its former name.

Features

Eğirdir lies between Lake Eğirdir and the Mount Sivri, and contains a castle said to have been built by Croesus, king of Lydia, although additions were built by the Romans, Byzantines, and Seljuks.

The population of Eğirdir is about 19,417 (as of 2010), but swells in the summer months as part-time residents return for the holidays. Eğirdir is a fishing community and local residents fish in Lake Eğirdir year round.

Yeşıl Ada (Turkish for "green island") is a small island connected to Eğirdir by a short causeway. Restaurants, hotels, pensions (pansyons or hostels), and a few private residences fill the island. Known for its past as a Greek village, Yeşıl Ada still has quite a few stone homes remaining from the Greek era.

Locals claim that Eğirdir is home to the world's only walk-through minaret.

See also

  • List of lakes in Turkey

References

  1. ↑ "Area of regions (including lakes), km²". Regional Statistics Database. Turkish Statistical Institute. 2002. Retrieved 2013-03-05. 
  2. ↑ "Population of province/district centers and towns/villages by districts - 2012". Address Based Population Registration System (ABPRS) Database. Turkish Statistical Institute. Retrieved 2013-02-27. 

External links


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