9 - Sariaydin Yayla

Summary

Beyond Aladaĝ Mountain is a long valley, densely wooded, with hundreds of springs bubbling forth everywhere, bright, cool, pebbly springs bedded in mint and heather. It is light that flows from these springs, not water, but a tinkling brightness. Since time out of mind this valley has been the summer pasture of the wandering Turcomans, the Yörüks …

(From the Legend of the Thousand Bulls by Yashar Kemal)

From the modern highway crossing the Taurus Mountains, Sanaydin Yayla appears as a collection of small beehive-shaped tents in a narrow hanging valley. Closer investigation will reveal stone and thornbush corrals scattered amongst the tents, a number of mud-roofed huts and well-beaten paths (see Fig. 9.1). What at first appears to be a stone-built, roofed corral roughly in the centre of the camp soon reveals itself as a ruined Seljuk caravanserai (Erdmann 1961; Özergin 1965), and out of the stone rubble lining the banks of a seasonal watercourse the practised eye will discern the remains of a paved road and arched stone bridge. The paved track winding its way from the valley floor to the Taurus watershed, at around 1,600 metres, is part of an ancient trade route running from Silifki on the coast to Karaman, Konya and ultimately Ankara on the Anatolian Plateau, mentioned in sources of the early Seljuk Dynasty in the thirteenth century (Turan 1971, pp.346, 512).