Uşak: Lydian Gold and the Ulubey Canyon

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

What is Uşak?

Uşak is a province and city in inner western Türkiye, on the high ground between the Aegean coast and Central Anatolia. It sits on the main road and railway linking İzmir, about 210 km to the west, with the interior. The province is small and mostly rural: wheat fields and pasture on the plateau, pine and oak forest on Murat Dağı, and deep canyons cut by the Banaz and Kazancı streams in the south.

For most travellers, Uşak means two things. The first is the Karun Treasure, a hoard of Lydian gold and silver looted in the 1960s, held for decades by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and returned to Türkiye in 1993; it is now the centrepiece of the Uşak Archaeology Museum. The second is the Ulubey Canyon, one of the longest canyon systems in the country, with a glass viewing terrace above it.

The city is also an old industrial town. Uşak carpets were exported to Europe for centuries, and the town had the first urban electricity network in Türkiye and the Republic’s first sugar factory. The 2002 tourism inventory described Uşak as one of the country’s appealing provinces worth seeing, with history, nature and culture on the transport network linking the Aegean to Central Anatolia.

Places to visit in Uşak

Uşak Archaeology Museum

Uşak Archaeology Museum and the Karun Treasure: Lydian gold looted in 1966,…

Ulubey Canyon

Ulubey Canyon in Uşak: a nature park of gorges up to 170…

Blaundos

Blaundos ancient city near Ulubey, Uşak: a Hellenistic and Roman town on…

How do you get to Uşak?

By air: Uşak Airport (USQ) exists but has had almost no scheduled traffic in recent years. In practice, fly to İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport and continue by road or rail.

By road: Uşak lies on the D-300 highway, the main east–west road between İzmir and Central Anatolia. Intercity coaches connect it with İzmir, Ankara, Istanbul and the neighbouring provinces. From the city, Banaz is about 30 km away, Ulubey and Sivaslı about 35 km, Karahallı about 65 km and Eşme about 74 km.

By rail: Uşak is on the national railway, with services to İzmir and other cities in western Anatolia. The new archaeology museum is in the station area.

Where should you stay in Uşak?

Stay in Uşak city. It has the hotels, restaurants and transport, and everything in the province is within a day trip: the museum and old quarters in town, the Ulubey Canyon and Blaundos to the south, Sebaste near Sivaslı and the Cılandıras Bridge in Karahallı. The districts have only small, simple hotels. Uşak also works as an overnight stop between İzmir and Ankara or on the way to Pamukkale.

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What type of climate does Uşak have?

Uşak has hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters, often with snow. The city sits on an inland plateau, so nights are cooler than on the coast even in July. Annual rainfall averages about 565 mm, falling mostly between November and April. The record high is 41.9°C, set in August 2023, and temperatures can drop well below freezing in January.

When is the best time to visit Uşak?

May, June, September and October are the best months. The plateau is green in late spring, the canyon paths are comfortable and the strawberry and kilim festivals fall in this period. July and August are hot in the canyon and at Blaundos, which has little shade; go early in the day. Winter suits a museum visit, but the canyon roads can be icy.

What is the history of Uşak?

The region has been settled since at least 4000 BC. According to the Uşak Culture and Tourism Directorate, Hittites, Luwians, Phrygians and Lydians ruled here in turn. Uşak lay on the border between Phrygia to the east and Lydia to the west, and the Persian Royal Road from Sardis to Susa crossed the province. The directorate notes that the Lydians were the first to use coinage, which is why the museum has such a large coin collection.

Persian, Macedonian, Pergamene and Roman rule followed, and the area was Byzantine for around 700 years. Ancient cities grew up across the plateau: Sebaste, founded under Augustus, Blaundos above the canyons, Akmonia on the Royal Road near Banaz, and Temenothyrai at Uşak itself. After the Battle of Malazgirt in 1071 the region passed to the Seljuks, then to the Germiyanid principality, and became Ottoman in the late 14th and early 15th centuries; the directorate gives 1391 and full incorporation in 1429.

Uşak played a part in the end of the Turkish War of Independence. The Greek commander Trikoupis was captured at Göğem village in 1922; Uşak was liberated on 1 September 1922, and the next day Atatürk and İnönü came to the city, where Trikoupis’s sword was handed over in the house that is now the Atatürk and Ethnography Museum. Uşak, a district of Kütahya until then, became a province in 1953.

What is Uşak famous for?

• The Karun Treasure, also known as the Lydian Hoard or Croesus Treasure.
• Uşak carpets. Made here since the 16th century, with medallion and star designs; European painters such as Hans Holbein the Younger painted them in detail.
• Eşme kilims, woven by hand with natural root dyes.
• The Ulubey Canyon and its glass terrace.
• Early industry: the first urban electricity network in Türkiye and the Republic’s first sugar factory.

What are the historical places of Uşak?

Uşak Archaeology Museum. Moved in 2018 to a new building in the station area, it displays the Karun Treasure and finds from Akmonia, Blaundos and Sebaste.

Atatürk and Ethnography Museum. A two-storey Ottoman house on Hisarkapı Uluyolu, built before 1879, where Atatürk stayed on 2 September 1922 and where Trikoupis surrendered his sword. It opened as a museum in 1978.

Ulu Mosque. No inscription records its construction, but the inventory explains that the inscription to the right above the middle door belongs to the Kocasu fountain, built in 1419, and the mosque is thought to date from around the same time. Its style follows the architecture of the Germiyanid period: one large and six small domes, with the large dome on four massive “elephant-foot” piers and five more domes over the portico.

Burma Mosque. A 14th-century building with two domes, named after its spiral-fluted (burma) minaret.

Sebaste (Selçikler). About 2 km southwest of Sivaslı, founded by Augustus in 20 BC and, according to the inventory, one of the 12 important cities of the Roman period. It became a bishopric and had its finest era under Byzantium, with a large and a small church. Excavations in 1966–1968 uncovered a church complex, and three tumuli in the necropolis south of the Çingil stream contained Greco-Persian finds of the 5th century BC.

Akmonia (Ahatköy). 40 km from Uşak and 8 km from Banaz, on a hill with a stream on three sides, on the Royal Road. Only a small part of the walls survives, and the theatre on the south slope is badly ruined.

Cılandıras Bridge (Karahallı). According to the inventory, the bridge over the Banaz stream was built by the Lydians on the Royal Road. Its arch is 24 m long, 17 m deep and 1.75 m wide, and the chisel-dressed stones of the arch are locked together with tenons. The provincial culture directorate dates it to around 600 BC.

Blaundos, the city above the Ulubey canyons, has its own page.

Hacım Sultan Tomb. In Hacım village, which takes its name from him. The inventory explains that his dates of birth and death are not known exactly and that he is thought to have lived in the 16th century; his real name was Recep. He is counted among the Turkish Sufis sent from Khorasan to Anatolia, and as a khalifa (successor) of Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli.

Bedesten and Paşa Hanı. The two-storey stone Bedesten was built by an Italian architect in 1901 and restored in the 1980s as a jewellers’ market. Paşa Hanı (Taşhan), built for Tiritoğlu Mehmet Paşa by a French architect, has shops on the ground floor and about 30 rooms above; the inventory calls it one of the buildings that show Uşak’s architectural beauty.

Mesotimolos (Düzköy). Around a valley near Düzköy, the rocks are cut with many simple single-room tombs with benches, some with rectangular and some with arched doors, which the inventory attributes to the Lydians. A tumulus crowns a hill about 300 m northeast of the village.

Other monuments. The Ottoman bridges of Çataltepe and Beylerhan over the Gediz River, and the Çanlı Bridge, built in the Seljuk period. The inventory notes that few traditional Uşak houses survive; examples can still be found in the Aybey, Işık, Karaağaç and Kurtuluş quarters.

What are the best things to do in Uşak?

• See the Lydian gold at the archaeology museum.
• Stand on the glass terrace above the Ulubey Canyon, then walk down into the valley from the Ulubey pine grove.
• Walk or ride on Murat Dağı. The inventory recommends the mountain for trekking, cycling, horse riding and botany.
• Go to a festival. The Eşme Kilim, Culture and Art Festival, the Sivaslı Strawberry Festival and the Ulubey Canyon Culture and Tourism Festival are all on the provincial calendar, and liberation week is celebrated at the end of August.
• Try the hot springs. The inventory lists Hamamboğazı, Örencik, Aksaz and Emirfakıllı; Roman bath remains were found at Aksaz.

What are the best places to visit in Uşak?

Uşak Archaeology Museum holds the Karun Treasure, including the golden winged seahorse brooch that was stolen and recovered from Germany.

Ulubey Canyon is a nature park of deep, branching canyons with a glass-floored viewing terrace 131 m above the valley floor.

Blaundos is a Hellenistic and Roman city on a spur surrounded by canyons, with a gate, temples, a theatre, a stadium and rock tombs.

Also worth a stop: the Cılandıras Bridge in Karahallı, Sebaste near Sivaslı, the Atatürk and Ethnography Museum, and the Ulu Mosque.

What should you buy in Uşak?

The provincial culture directorate recommends Uşak carpets, Eşme kilims, cotton textiles, plush blankets and leather clothing. For food, look for tarhana, tahini halva and the red “bride’s halva” (gelin helvası).

Frequently asked questions about Uşak

What do the official records say about Uşak?

Uşak, on the transport network linking the Aegean region to Central Anatolia, is one of our charming provinces worth seeing, with unique treasures of history, nature and culture. The display of the Lydian-period Karun Treasures in the province, after a long legal struggle, has increased the number of domestic and foreign tourists coming to Uşak in recent years.

Few of the Uşak houses that bear the traces of Ottoman building survive today. These houses, built in the first years of the Republic and keeping Ottoman architectural features, can be seen in the Aybey, Işık, Karaağaç and Kurtuluş quarters. The ground floors of Uşak houses are generally of stone, the upper floor of timber, with bay windows, pitched roofs, lath-and-plaster walls and tiles. These houses have been placed under protection by the Ministry of Culture. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Uşak Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)