Giresun Island: The Island of Ares

On this page

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

What is Giresun Island?

Giresun Island (Giresun Adası) is a low, rocky island covered in laurel and black locust, lying a little over a kilometre off the city of Giresun. It covers about 4 hectares, roughly 40,000 m², and you can walk around it in well under an hour. From the castle on the mainland it looks like a dark green raft anchored in the bay.

Small as it is, the island carries a lot of history and legend. Ancient writers knew it as Aretias or Areos Nesos, the Island of Ares, and linked it with the Amazons and with Jason and the Argonauts. On the ground there are the remains of a temple, defensive walls, a monastery and a chapel, and every May the island is the focus of the Aksu Festival, one of the oldest spring rituals on the coast.

How do you get to Giresun Island?

The only way across is by boat. In the summer season, excursion boats and fishing boats leave from Giresun harbour and land at the bay on the island’s south-eastern side, where a path leads inland to the ruins. The crossing is short, and local tour operators in Giresun arrange trips. Departures depend on the weather and the sea, which can turn rough quickly on the Black Sea, so check at the harbour on the day.

Giresun itself is about 25 km from Ordu-Giresun Airport. The best view of the island from land is from Giresun Castle.

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 Giresun Island?

June to September, when boats run regularly and the sea is calmest. May brings the Aksu Festival, when crowds gather on the shore and many people make the crossing for the island rituals. Outside the season there may be no boats at all.

What is the history of Giresun Island?

Greek colonists from Kerasous, the ancient Giresun, probably began using the island in the 6th or 5th century BC. A roofless temple of the Classical-Hellenistic period stands at its centre, and later a walled settlement with watchtowers was built in Roman times. Two presses for wine or olive oil have been found, and in the Byzantine period a monastery stood here. A chapel of the 11th–12th centuries was uncovered in 2015.

The legends are older than the ruins. In Apollonius of Rhodes’ Argonautica, the Argonauts land on Aretias, drive off a flock of birds that shoot feathers like arrows, and pick up four shipwrecked sailors. Other ancient stories made the island a sanctuary of the Amazons, who were said to hold fertility rites here, which is why it is sometimes called the Amazon Island.

The 2002 provincial inventory notes that the island is held sacred by the people of the town and region, and today it is protected by the state as a historical and natural site where no one may live.

What is Giresun Island famous for?

• The Aksu Festival. Each May, people go to the island and the Aksu stream on the shore to make wishes for health and fertility, a custom widely seen as a survival of ancient spring rites.
• The Hamza Stone (Hamza Taşı). A round black stone about 4 m across in the temple ruins, where the festival walk begins and where visitors make wishes.
• The Argonauts and the Amazons, both linked to the island by ancient writers.
• Birds. Cormorants and gulls nest on the rocks around the shore.

What can you see at Giresun Island?

The temple. The roofless stone walls in the middle of the island belong to a temple of the Classical-Hellenistic period. The Hamza Stone lies within it.

Walls and towers. Stretches of fortification wall and the remains of watchtowers follow the island’s edge, from the Roman-era walled settlement.

The monastery and chapel. Ruins of a Byzantine monastery and the 11th–12th-century chapel excavated in 2015.

The view back to the city. From the island’s north side you see the whole of Giresun spread around its peninsula, with the castle on top and the mountains behind.

The island has no facilities beyond the landing, so bring water, and wear shoes that grip on wet rock and roots.

Common misconceptions about Giresun Island

Is Giresun Island the only island in the Black Sea?

What people often assume: Giresun Island is often described as the only island in the Black Sea.

What the record says: The 2002 inventory describes it as the only island in the Eastern Black Sea Region. The Black Sea has other islands, such as Snake Island off Ukraine and St Anastasia Island off Bulgaria, so “the only island of any size on Türkiye’s eastern Black Sea coast” is the accurate claim (source).

Frequently asked questions about Giresun Island

What do the official records say about Giresun Island?

The island, one mile off the coast, is the only island of the Eastern Black Sea Region. According to some sources it was also known by the names Aretias, Areos Nesos and Arionesos.

The island, which is also mentioned in Greek mythology, covers an area of about 40,000 square metres. On the island, which the people of the city and the region regard as sacred, it is possible to come across the remains of walls, a palace and a monastery. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Giresun Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)

Main photo: Girtab2828, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.