The mosque at the water's edge
The single-minaret mosque with the wooden village behind it is the classic shot, best when evening fog closes over the peaks.
İhsan Deniz Kılıçoğlu — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Mohammadex8 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Siraj Almogrby — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Korkut Tas — CC BY-SA 3.0
The picture that brought you here is real: a small single-minaret mosque at the water's edge, a village of wooden Black Sea houses behind it, and above everything forested mountains that fill with fog as the afternoon fades. Uzungöl, Turkish for 'Long Lake', was made by an ancient landslide that dammed the Haldizen stream, pooling the water at roughly 1,100 m in a narrow valley south-east of Trabzon. It is about a kilometre long and half a kilometre wide, so smaller than the aerial shots suggest, but the whole composition - water, mosque, village, cloud hanging on the slopes - is what you drive up for, not the size of the lake. There is no ticket and no gate: lake and village are open at all hours, and the only money you will part with on arrival is a summer parking charge at the hotels or private lots along the shore. The paved path around the lake is perfectly flat and takes well under an hour at a stroll; a pushchair rolls along it without complaint, which counts for a lot with families. Restaurants, cafés and souvenir shops line the shore, and the lakeside mosque is the obvious place to pray; the village has other mosques too. The famous view that frames lake and village together is not taken from the shore but from the road climbing above the village towards the Karester plateau, so it needs a car or a short jeep ride. The caveats deserve saying plainly. In 2008 a concrete wall was built along the shoreline, and locals and ecologists have argued ever since that it turned the lake into something like a giant artificial pool - an impression that is hard to shake when you stand close to the water. In July and August the village becomes a small town with a heavily Gulf clientele, and the single road up from the coast can jam for hours at weekends. Rain and fog are possible in any month, even high summer, so do not plan around one day of clear sky. Getting here means the coastal highway east from Trabzon airport, then the D915 up the Solaklı valley - about 95 km and one and a half to two hours by car; dolmuş minibuses from Trabzon pass through Çaykara, 19 km below. One night is worth more than a day trip, because the best of Uzungöl is the evening when the fog comes down and the morning before the coaches arrive. From the village, jeep tours climb to the high plateaus - Karester, Demirkapı, Sultan Murat - and for anyone who likes walking and open views these are honestly the more exciting half of the visit. In winter snow buries the village completely and the scene is extraordinary, but the road can close for days and most plateau activity stops.
The single-minaret mosque with the wooden village behind it is the classic shot, best when evening fog closes over the peaks.
The aerial frame of lake and village together comes from the road climbing above the village, not from the shore.
Jeeps climb from the village to the Karester, Demirkapı and Sultan Murat plateaus - the more exciting half of the visit for walkers.
Uzungöl Mahallesi, Çaykara, Trabzon
A day trip works - two hours up, two hours down, a few hours on the shore - but you will arrive with the coaches and leave before the fog. If you have one spare night, spend it here: the evening and the early morning are what make Uzungöl worth the road, and on August weekends half a day can vanish in traffic on the single access road.
Yes if snow is the point - the village under snow is unforgettable and the larger hotels stay open. But the road from Çaykara can close for days, plateau tours stop, and the lakeside path can be slippery for children. If walking and the plateaus are what you want, come between May and October.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.
