Aladağlar National Park

Aladağlar National Park, the “Variegated Mountains,” spans parts of Kayseri, Niğde and Adana provinces in southern Turkey. Established in 1995, it contains limestone summits, deep valleys and steep cliffs, with Kızılkaya reaching 3,767 metres. Spring snowmelt forms lakes and waterfalls, including the Kapuzbaşı falls, some up to 70 metres high, while the Yedigöller plateau overlooks alpine lakes among the peaks. Fir, oak, cedar, juniper, aspen and larch forests support brown bears, wolves, foxes, bezoar ibex and Anatolian lynx. Golden eagles, griffon vultures and bearded vultures circle overhead.

A legend tells of a king whose daughter was foretold to die from a snakebite. He built her a castle in the sea, but on her eighteenth birthday a snake hidden in a basket of fruit reached the princess and fulfilled the prophecy.