Kangal Balıklı Kaplıca: The Fish Spring of Sivas

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

What is Kangal Balıklı Kaplıca?

Kangal Balıklı Kaplıca (“the fish spa of Kangal”), now protected as Balıklıgöl Nature Park, is a hot spring in a green valley in the south of Sivas province. Its pools are full of small fish that nibble at the skin of anyone who gets in. The 2002 inventory explains that thousands of small fish, the largest about 10 cm long, live in the spring water; they eat away spots and scabs and increase the contact of the water with the skin.

The provincial directorate calls it the only natural treatment centre on earth for psoriasis, describing toothless fish that clean the skin as the water softens thick crusts.

How do you get to Kangal Balıklı Kaplıca?

The spring is about 98 km from Sivas city centre and 13 km from Kangal town, in the valley of the Kavak stream northeast of Kangal. Drive south from Sivas on the Malatya road to Kangal and follow the signs. Public transport is limited, so a car or taxi from Kangal is the practical choice.

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When is the best time to visit Kangal Balıklı Kaplıca?

The inventory recorded that the spa was open all year, with indoor and outdoor pools. Summer is the busy season, when the valley is green and the outdoor pools are most pleasant. Spring and autumn are quieter. If you are going for treatment, plan a long stay: the inventory advised three weeks.

What is the history of Kangal Balıklı Kaplıca?

Local people used the spring long before it was developed. The site was declared a tourism centre by the Council of Ministers in 1991, and a hotel complex, pools and private baths were built around it. Research cited by the inventory found the spring area important both for its geothermal potential and the possibilities for using that energy.

The inventory describes the regime once recommended for a positive result: entering the pool three times a day for three weeks (21 days) and staying in the water for two hours each time, and drinking a few glasses of the spring water each morning on an empty stomach. It also describes how the bubbles rising from the ground and the fish’s nibbling relax the body. These are traditional claims; anyone considering it as a treatment should talk to their doctor first.

What is Kangal Balıklı Kaplıca famous for?

• The “doctor fish”. Small fish of the carp family that feed on dead skin; Kangal is the best-known fish spa in Türkiye.
• Psoriasis. The inventory says that for people with psoriasis who had not been helped by modern medicine, Kangal had become a last source of hope.
• The Kangal dog. The district gives its name to Türkiye’s famous shepherd dog, and a research centre for the breed is in Kangal.

What can you do at Kangal Balıklı Kaplıca?

Bathe with the fish. Sit in the warm pools and let the fish nibble. It tickles at first; most people get used to it in a few minutes. The inventory describes separate open-air pools for women and men, plus a covered pool.

Stay in the valley. The inventory describes a rural setting in a green valley, with accommodation, camping and caravan pitches, restaurants and a semi-Olympic swimming pool for healthy visitors.

Meet the Kangal dogs. The Kangal Dog Research Centre (Kangal Köpeği Araştırma Merkezi) is listed by the provincial directorate among the district’s sights. The inventory writes that Kangal dogs understand harsh and gentle words well, know when they are praised or scolded, and immediately recognise people with good or bad intentions; they show their feelings not only by posture, movement and expression but by barks of different tones.

See Alacahan. The provincial directorate also recommends the Alacahan caravanserai and mosque, the Halil Rıfat Paşa Bridge and the house and grave of the folk poet Âşık Ruhsati in Deliktaş village.

Common misconceptions about Kangal Balıklı Kaplıca

Do the fish bite?

What people often assume: That the fish have teeth and bite into the skin.

What the record says: The provincial directorate describes them as toothless fish that clean away crusts softened by the water rather than biting (Sivas Culture and Tourism Directorate).

Frequently asked questions about Kangal Balıklı Kaplıca

What do the official records say about Kangal Balıklı Kaplıca?

It is 96 km from Sivas and 13 km from Kangal district, in the Kavak stream valley northeast of Kangal. The temperature of the water is 36–37°C. Thousands of small fish, the largest 10 cm long, live in the spring water. The fish eat the spots and scabs of those who enter the pool and increase the contact of the spring water with the skin.

The Kangal Fish Spring further increases the thermal character of the country, because for people with the skin disease psoriasis, who have so far found no benefit in modern medicine, the Kangal Fish Spring has become the last source of hope. The spring is in a rural area, in a green valley. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Sivas Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)