Sırakayalar Waterfalls: Green Water on the Bayburt Steppe

On this page

1. What are the Sırakayalar Waterfalls?
2. How do you get to the Sırakayalar Waterfalls?
3. When is the best time to visit the Sırakayalar Waterfalls?
4. What is the history of the Sırakayalar Waterfalls?
5. What are the Sırakayalar Waterfalls famous for?
6. What can you do at the Sırakayalar Waterfalls?
7. Frequently asked questions about the Sırakayalar Waterfalls
8. What do the official records say about the Sırakayalar Waterfalls?

What are the Sırakayalar Waterfalls?

The Sırakayalar Waterfalls (Sırakayalar Şelaleleri) are two waterfalls in the village of Sırakayalar, in the central district of Bayburt. One falls at the entrance to the village, the other inside it. Around them, on the open steppe, is a pocket of green, which is why Turkish travel writers call the place “a paradise in the middle of the steppe”.

The 2002 inventory describes both falls as having natural beauty worth seeing, with the areas around them used as picnic places in the summer months. They are the main natural excursion from Bayburt city.

How do you get to the Sırakayalar Waterfalls?

Leave Bayburt on the road to Erzurum. At the 6th kilometre, turn off and follow the village road for another 16 km to Sırakayalar. The whole drive takes around half an hour by car or taxi from the city. The first waterfall is at the village entrance; the second is inside the village.

Because the turn-off is on the Erzurum road, the falls are easy to combine with the Kop Pass and the Mount Kop Defence National Historic Park further along the same highway.

Tours in Anatolia

−5% Istambul readers save 5% on every tour below — applied at checkout.

See all tours

Partner listings via GetYourGuide · free cancellation on most

When is the best time to visit the Sırakayalar Waterfalls?

Late spring and early summer bring the most water, when snowmelt from the surrounding uplands feeds the streams. The flow is noticeably lower in late summer and autumn, though the falls remain a popular day out.

Summer is the busiest season, when families from Bayburt and neighbouring provinces come to picnic by the water. Go on a weekday for a quieter visit.

Winter can be spectacular. In cold spells, when temperatures in the region drop to around −20 °C, the falls freeze into curtains of ice that regularly appear in the Turkish news. The village road may be icy or snowbound, so check conditions first.

What is the history of the Sırakayalar Waterfalls?

The falls have long been a local picnic place for people from Bayburt, and they appear in the 2002 provincial inventory as one of the province’s recreation areas (mesire yerleri). In the 2010s the provincial authorities began promoting them at tourism fairs, and landscaping projects around the falls have continued since.

The surrounding upland belongs to the high country between Bayburt and Erzurum, crossed by the historic road over the Kop Pass. In 1916, Ottoman troops held the Kop heights against the Russian army from March to July; on the centenary of the battle in 2016 the area was declared a national historic park.

What are the Sırakayalar Waterfalls famous for?

• Green in the steppe. A patch of green around falling water in an open, dry landscape.
• Two falls in one village. One at the entrance, one inside the village.
• Ice in winter. Frozen falls that make some of the best-known winter images of Bayburt.

What can you do at the Sırakayalar Waterfalls?

Picnic. Bring food and spend a summer afternoon under the trees beside the water, as local families do.

Photograph the falls. Both in full flow in spring and frozen in winter; the ice formations are the main draw for photographers in January and February.

Walk through the village. The second waterfall is reached on foot through Sırakayalar, a small upland village.

Drive on to Kop. Continue along the Erzurum road to the Kop Pass and the Mount Kop Defence National Historic Park, with its memorial of 1963, restored trenches and war graves.

See the Helva ice cave. In Helva village, south of the Masat valley and 33 km from Bayburt, a cave whose ice stalactites and stalagmites have been used by villagers as a natural cold store.

Visit Dede Korkut’s tomb. The tomb attributed to the bard of the Oghuz epics is in Masat village, about 30 km from the city.

Frequently asked questions about the Sırakayalar Waterfalls

What do the official records say about the Sırakayalar Waterfalls?

The Sırakayalar Waterfalls, reached by turning off the Bayburt–Erzurum highway at its 6th kilometre and travelling 16 km further, are two in number, one at the entrance to Sırakayalar village in the central district of the province and one inside the village. Both waterfalls, whose surroundings are used as picnic places in the summer months, have natural beauty worth seeing. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Bayburt Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)

Of the Helva village ice cave, the inventory adds that it lies south of the Masat Valley, 33 km from the provincial centre, on the slope just above the village, with stalactites and stalagmites of ice inside; used at various times by the villagers as a cold store, the cave reflects the many different shapes of ice formation. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Bayburt Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)