Gümüşhane: Silver Town Between the Sea and the Steppe

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1. What is Gümüşhane?
2. How do you get to Gümüşhane?
3. Where should you stay in Gümüşhane?
4. What type of climate does Gümüşhane have?
5. When is the best time to visit Gümüşhane?
6. What is the history of Gümüşhane?
7. What is Gümüşhane famous for?
8. What are the historical places of Gümüşhane?
9. What are the best things to do in Gümüşhane?
10. What are the best places to visit in Gümüşhane?
11. What is the traditional food of Gümüşhane?
12. What should you buy in Gümüşhane?
13. Frequently asked questions about Gümüşhane
14. What do the official records say about Gümüşhane?

What is Gümüşhane?

Gümüşhane is a mountain province between the Black Sea coast and eastern Anatolia, and the name of its capital, a small city strung along the narrow valley of the Harşit river at about 1,150 m. The 2002 provincial inventory describes it as a transition zone between Eastern Anatolia and the Black Sea, set on the historic trade road between Trabzon and Iran, and calls it a natural resting point between Trabzon and Erzurum, among orchards and wild roses.

Its name comes from silver. Gümüş means silver and hane house, and for centuries the mines here fed the treasuries of eastern and central Anatolia. The Greek-speaking population knew the town as Argyropolis, “silver city”.

Gümüşhane gets far fewer visitors than its neighbour Trabzon, but it has some of the most striking sights in the region: the dripstone halls of Karaca Cave, the empty stone villages of Santa, the Roman frontier fortress of Satala, high lakes and waterfalls, and the Zigana Pass, where the old road crosses the mountains to the sea. The inventory counts it among the richest provinces in Türkiye for yaylas.

Places to visit in Gümüşhane

Karaca Cave

Karaca Cave near Torul, Gümüşhane: a 105 m show cave at 1,550…

Santa Ruins

Santa (Santa Harabeleri), Gümüşhane: nine abandoned stone hamlets and 1870s churches of…

Satala

Satala at Sadak near Kelkit, Gümüşhane: base of Rome’s Fifteenth Legion, visited…

Artabel Lakes

Artabel Lakes Nature Park in Torul, Gümüşhane: 18 high mountain lakes in…

Tomara Waterfall

Tomara Waterfall near Şiran, Gümüşhane: a spring-fed fall of about 25 m…

How do you get to Gümüşhane?

By air: Gümüşhane has no airport of its own in operation; a Gümüşhane-Bayburt airport is planned near Köse. The usual gateway is Trabzon Airport, which has frequent flights from Istanbul Airport, Sabiha Gökçen and Ankara. For Kelkit and Şiran in the south of the province, Erzincan Airport is an alternative.

By road: Gümüşhane lies on the main D885 road from Trabzon to Erzurum. Since May 2023 that road has run through the new Zigana Tunnel, 14.5 km long and the longest road tunnel in Türkiye, between Maçka in Trabzon and Torul in Gümüşhane, which bypasses the 2,032 m Zigana Pass. Buses run between Trabzon and Gümüşhane throughout the day, and intercity coaches connect the city with Erzurum, Ankara and Istanbul.

Getting around: The main sights are scattered across a big, mountainous province. Karaca Cave is close to the main road, but for Santa, Satala, the Artabel lakes or Tomara Waterfall you need a car, and for Santa and Artabel a vehicle that can handle rough mountain roads.

Where should you stay in Gümüşhane?

Gümüşhane city has a modest range of hotels and is the best base for Karaca Cave, Eski Gümüşhane and the Torul area. For Santa, most visitors make a long day trip from Gümüşhane. Kelkit is the practical base for Satala and the south of the province, and Şiran for Tomara Waterfall. In summer, guesthouses open on some yaylas, including Zigana.

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What type of climate does Gümüşhane have?

Gümüşhane has a continental climate, much drier than the coast just over the mountains. Winters are cold and snowy, with temperatures often dropping to −10°C; summers are warm, and the valley can get hot in July and August. The city gets around 1,985 hours of sunshine and about 466 mm of rain and snow a year, a fraction of what falls on Trabzon or Giresun. The yaylas and high passes are much colder, and snow can stay on the high ground into June.

When is the best time to visit Gümüşhane?

June to September for the yaylas, Santa and the Artabel lakes, which are hard to reach under snow. July is the month of the highland festivals: the 2002 inventory lists more than a dozen, at Zigana, Kadırga, Kazıkbeli, Alacapazarı and other pastures. September brings the Kuşburnu and Pestil festival, when the rosehip and mulberry harvests are in. Karaca Cave can be visited year-round, and winter brings skiing at Zigana.

What is the history of Gümüşhane?

The 2002 inventory traces Gümüşhane’s history back to around 1500 BC, when the region’s first known peoples, the Azzi and Hayasa, lived here. Over the following centuries it passed through the hands of Assyrians, Urartians, Scythians, Medes, Persians, the Kingdom of Pontus, Romans, Arabs and Byzantines. In the Roman period the south of the province was a military frontier: Satala, near Kelkit, was the base of the Fifteenth Legion. Around 840 AD the area became part of the Byzantine province of Chaldia, and later of the Empire of Trebizond.

Mehmed II brought the region under Ottoman rule in 1461, when he ended the Empire of Trebizond. The old settlement was called Canca. According to the inventory, Süleyman the Magnificent, stopping here on his Iranian campaign, saw the silver workings, ordered a mosque and fifty houses to be built, and gave the town the name Gümüşhane; the inventory gives the date as 1553, though elsewhere it gives 1534, so the 16th century is the safe answer. The town was granted the right to mint coins, and coins struck with the name “Canca” survive in museums. Because of the mines, local people enjoyed privileges, above all exemption from tax.

The mines and the town were at their liveliest under Murad IV (1623–1640), when the population is said to have reached 30,000–40,000, with Muslims and Christians, Greeks and Armenians living side by side. The government revoked the miners’ privileges in 1894 and the workings closed. Russian forces occupied the town from July 1916 to February 1918, and the population dwindled as people left. The settlement gradually shifted down into the Harşit valley, where the new Trabzon–Erzurum road ran, and four years after the founding of the Republic the provincial seat was moved there. The old town survives as the Süleymaniye quarter, Eski Gümüşhane.

What is Gümüşhane famous for?

• Pestil and köme. Sheets of dried mulberry paste and strings of walnuts or hazelnuts coated in mulberry, the province’s best-known products.
• Silver. The mines that gave the province its name and its Ottoman privileges.
• Karaca Cave, the most visited cave in the region.
• Santa, the stone villages of a Pontic Greek community high in the mountains.
• Zigana, the pass, the yayla and, since 2023, the longest road tunnel in Türkiye.
• Kuşburnu (rosehip), made into marmalade and tea.

What are the historical places of Gümüşhane?

Eski Gümüşhane and the Süleymaniye Mosque. In the old town in the Süleymaniye valley, only one of the six known mosques still stands intact and open for worship: the Süleymaniye Mosque, built by order of Süleyman the Magnificent. Evliya Çelebi, writing in 1647, mentions eleven mihrabs in the town. Behind it, among gardens, is the smaller Küçük Camii, of uncertain date. The quarter is a protected urban and natural site, and the ruins of the church of Hagios Georgios are nearby.

Satala. The Roman legionary fortress at Sadak village, 17 km south-east of Kelkit.

Santa. Nine stone hamlets and their churches in the mountains of the north-east, in the area of Dumanlı village.

Imera (Olucak) Monastery Church. In Olucak village, 15 km from the city, a former Greek settlement. The church has a cross-in-rectangle plan with a central dome; its inscription gives 1350, and it is thought to have been repaired in the 19th century. The inventory calls Imera the most important religious centre of the Gümüşhane area, with the remains of many churches.

Tombs. The Çağırgan Baba tomb in Tekke village, beside the main road, dated by its inscription to 9 July 1582 and said to have been built after a dream of Murad III during his Iranian campaign. The Pir Ahmed tomb of 1550, on the Erzurum road, belongs to Karamanoğlu Pir Ahmed Bey. The octagonal Firdevs Hatun tomb of 1557 stands on Çilhoroz mountain on the road to Şiran.

Bridges. The Tohumoğlu bridge on the Erzurum road, thought to be Seljuk, with two slightly pointed arches; the single-arched Gümüşkaya (Kodil Bahçe) bridge, still in use; the Ardesa bridge in Torul, built of cut stone in 1890; and two Meryemana footbridges in the Büyük Çit valley.

Castles. Sources record about 35 castles built to defend and watch over the region, though most have not survived; among them are the castles of Canca, Akça, Ardase, Kodir, Satala and Kov.

The Çit minbar. In the mosque of Çit village in Torul, a deeply carved wooden pulpit that was originally made for a church, a fine piece of Greek woodwork.

What are the best things to do in Gümüşhane?

• Go underground at Karaca Cave, just off the Trabzon road.
• Walk among the ruins of Santa on a summer day.
• Hike to the Artabel lakes, a group of high mountain lakes in Torul district.
• Drive over the old Zigana Pass instead of through the tunnel, for the views and the yayla at the top. In winter, Zigana has a small ski centre.
• Visit Tomara Waterfall in Şiran, where a spring bursts straight out of the hillside.
• Explore the other caves. Akçakale Cave, about 10 km east of the city, was discovered in 1996 and has a 95 m height difference between its entrance and deepest point; Arılı Cave in Torul has stalactites in shades from white to dark blue.
• Join a yayla festival in July, or the Kuşburnu and Pestil festival in September.

What are the best places to visit in Gümüşhane?

Karaca Cave is a show cave near Torul with four linked chambers of stalactites, stalagmites, travertine pools and cave flowers, open to visitors since 1996.

Santa Ruins are the stone houses and churches of nine hamlets built by a Greek community in the mountains, now empty and protected.

Satala was the most important Roman military base in the east, home of the Legio XV Apollinaris, at Sadak near Kelkit.

Artabel Lakes Nature Park protects 18 high lakes and their surrounding mountains in Torul district, about 60 km from the city.

Tomara Waterfall is a spring-fed waterfall in a narrow valley near Şiran, protected as a nature park.

Also worth seeing: Eski Gümüşhane and the Süleymaniye Mosque, the Imera monastery at Olucak, the Limni Lake and Örümcek Forests nature parks, and the yaylas of Zigana, Kadırga and Taşköprü.

What is the traditional food of Gümüşhane?

Gümüşhane is famous for its dried fruit sweets. Pestil is mulberry pulp, often mixed with flour or starch, spread thin and dried in the sun into soft sheets; köme are strings of walnuts or hazelnuts dipped repeatedly in thickened mulberry juice and dried. Both are sold all over Türkiye, but Gümüşhane is where they come from. Kuşburnu (rosehip) is made into a thick marmalade and a sour tea, and apples, walnuts and honey feature in many local desserts. The cooking is closer to that of eastern Anatolia than to the Black Sea coast: more grains, butter and dairy, less fish.

What should you buy in Gümüşhane?

Pestil, köme and kuşburnu marmalade are the obvious buys, and shops along the main road through the city sell them in every variety. Dried mulberries, walnuts and local honey make good gifts too.

Frequently asked questions about Gümüşhane

What do the official records say about Gümüşhane?

The history of Gümüşhane, which forms a transition zone between Eastern Anatolia and the Black Sea region, goes back to 1500 BC. It is set on the historic trade road between Trabzon and Iran. Among orchards and wild roses, between Trabzon and Erzurum, it is a natural resting point. It is one of the richest cities in Türkiye in terms of yaylas.

Gümüşhane, which was the stage of many civilisations, finally came under Ottoman rule with Mehmed the Conqueror in 1461. Gümüşhane has rich gold and silver deposits that fed the treasury of eastern and central Anatolia. This economic liveliness continued until the silver deposits were closed. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Gümüşhane Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)