Kemaliye: Old Eğin, the Dark Canyon and the Stone Road

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

What is Kemaliye?

Kemaliye, still called Eğin by its people, is a small town in the far southwest of Erzincan province, built on slopes of 30 to 45 per cent that drop to the Karasu branch of the Euphrates. Its houses of two, three and four storeys have stone ground floors and timber upper floors, and they stand in tiers facing the river, with stepped streets and covered passages between them. Behind the town rise the Munzur Mountains; just to the north the river enters the Dark Canyon.

UNESCO’s Tentative List entry describes a landscape that testifies to 600 years of Ottoman-Anatolian town building and architecture, and to the geology of a region that lay beneath the Neotethys Ocean from the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous. The town has about 470 buildings in its centre, 125 of them registered as cultural property.

It is a quiet place, with about 2,500 people in the town. Visitors come for the houses, the canyon and the Taş Yol, a road cut by hand through the canyon cliffs over 132 years.

How do you get to Kemaliye?

By road: Kemaliye is about 160 km from Erzincan, 150 km from Elazığ and 170 km from Malatya. The last stretch from İliç runs along the Euphrates and through the Dark Canyon.

By rail: The nearest station is İliç, on the Ankara–Kars line used by the Doğu Ekspresi. Minibuses and local guides meet trains, and the drive to the start of the Taş Yol takes about half an hour, then about ten minutes more to Kemaliye.

From Divriği: The Taş Yol links Kemaliye with Divriği in Sivas province. In 2023 residents reported that it had not been maintained since it opened, that water collects in the tunnels in winter and spring, and that it can be closed in winter. Drive it slowly and in daylight, and ask locally about conditions.

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When is the best time to visit Kemaliye?

May to June and September to October. Spring is the adventure-sports season in the canyon, with rafting, base jumping and wingsuit events held in April and May. Early autumn usually has settled weather and fewer visitors.

In winter, snow and ice can close the Taş Yol and the canyon road, and icicles form in the tunnels. If you come then, use the İliç road and allow plenty of time.

What is the history of Kemaliye?

The founding date of the town is unknown. In the Byzantine period the settlement, then called Teucila, was a military outpost. After the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 the region passed to the Seljuks, and under Mehmed I (1413–1421) it became part of the Ottoman Empire. Eğin then grew into a trading town on the caravan routes, and caravans passed through regularly until the 19th century.

The town had a large Armenian community, which was attacked in the massacres of 1895–96. On 21 October 1922, after the War of Independence, Eğin was officially renamed Kemaliye in honour of Mustafa Kemal Pasha.

Kemaliye has no forest of its own, so timber for its houses was brought from the forests of Refahiye, tied together and floated down the Euphrates. The houses were built in the local hımış technique: a timber frame filled with stone or mud brick. Since the 1950s many façades and flat roofs have been covered in metal sheeting. The town was declared an urban protected area in 2005, and its conservation plan came into force in 2010.

Work on the Taş Yol began in 1870. Villagers cut the rock by hand with simple tools, with state support at times, and the road finally opened in 2002.

What is Kemaliye famous for?

• The houses. Timber upper storeys on stone ground floors, facing the Euphrates. An 1895 travel guide already described Eğin’s stone houses in terraced gardens as among the best in Anatolia.
• The Dark Canyon (Karanlık Kanyon). Cut by the Karasu through the Munzur Mountains, with rock walls rising around 1,000 m and a floor only 10–15 m wide in places. Sources give its length as 25 to 35 km. It was registered as a natural protected area in 2020.
• The Taş Yol. About 7 km long with 38 tunnels, carved into the canyon cliffs, often listed among the most dangerous roads in the world.
• Door knockers. Front doors carry two knockers with different sounds: a heavy one for men and a lighter, higher-pitched one for women, so the right member of the household answers.

What can you do at Kemaliye?

Walk the old streets. Stepped lanes run either parallel to the slope or straight down it. Look for the torta, passages where houses are built over the street, and the remaining stretches of rıhtım, paving of river stones.

Read the Mısra Yolu. In the upper town, verses carved into walls are said to come from women whose husbands were away working in the Ottoman period.

Take a boat into the Dark Canyon. The canyon begins about 4 km north of the town. Boat trips on the dam lake take around 45 minutes and are the easiest way to see the walls close up.

Drive the Taş Yol. Tunnels with open sides look straight down to the river. Go in daylight, in dry weather, and give way generously.

Visit Apçağa. The village above the town is the birthplace of the poet Ahmet Kutsi Tecer, who wrote a well-known poem about it.

Explore caves. The inventory notes that the wild nature of Kemaliye and its surroundings suits caving and canyon trips, and describes the Ala Cave northeast of the town.

Buy lök. The historic Lökhane sells lök, a sweet of almonds, walnuts, honey and sugar, along with mulberry and walnut sucuk.

Common misconceptions about Kemaliye

Are Kemaliye’s houses a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

What people often assume: Travel articles often say that Kemaliye’s houses are on the World Heritage List.

What the record says: Kemaliye was added to Türkiye’s Tentative List in 2021, the first step towards a nomination. It has not been inscribed on the World Heritage List (UNESCO).

Frequently asked questions about Kemaliye

What do the official records say about Kemaliye?

The Ala Cave is northeast of Kemaliye district. Inside the cave there are passages and channels, and water flows as seepage at its entrance. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Erzincan Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)

The inventory also notes the setting for adventure: with its rugged natural structure, Erzincan suits mountaineering, rafting is possible on the Euphrates with its wild flow, and the wild nature of Kemaliye and its surroundings makes caving and canyon tours possible, while the Munzur Mountains offer an extremely suitable natural environment for trekking, rock climbing, mountain biking and paragliding. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Erzincan Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)