Things to Do in Kirikkale: Buklukale, the Cesnigir Bridge and the Kizilirmak Valley

What Kirikkale is actually like

Kirikkale grew out of a factory, not a village. At the end of the 1920s there was a settlement here called Kirik with twelve households. A state decision to build an ammunition works, plus the railway coming through, turned it into a working town of tens of thousands within thirty years. The province itself was only created in 1989, which makes it one of the youngest in Turkey.

The consequence for a traveller is straightforward. There is no old urban fabric in the centre, because there never was one. What there is to see sits outside the city and is spread thin: the valley the Kizilirmak has cut in the southwest with a Seljuk bridge over it, the stone buildings and shrines of Keskin in the south, the steppe towns of Delice in the northeast.

This is a place you pass through rather than holiday in, and most people see it while filling the tank. Even so, driving out of Ankara in the morning, taking in Buklukale, the Cesnigir bridge and the Kapulukaya valley, and being back by evening is a realistic plan. There are 10 numbered stops below, matching the pins on the map.

Quick answer

Work the province in three directions: Karakecili and the Kizilirmak valley southwest, Keskin and Mount Dinek south, Baliseyh and Delice northeast.

• Around 80 km from Ankara, roughly an hour by road.
• The two strongest stops, Buklukale and the Cesnigir bridge, are four hundred metres apart.
• The main line fits one full day; the city plus the valley takes half a day.

Things to do in Kirikkale

1. Buklukale

A rocky hill east of Karakecili, rising where the Kizilirmak bends. Excavations run by Japanese and Turkish teams since 2009 have found three cultural layers: Ottoman, Iron Age and Late Bronze Age. The bottom layer is what matters. In the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE, during the Hittite imperial period, this was a walled town, and the remains carry fire damage. The position is no accident: it sits at a river crossing and controls traffic between the two banks.

This is not a laid-out archaeological park. Signage is thin and outside the dig season you may find nobody here. What you see is lines of stone, trench sections and a view down to the river. In return it is the most serious archaeology in the province, and the climb takes ten minutes.

• Getting there: East from Karakecili town, on the road down to the riverbank.
• Time: 45 minutes, or 1.5 hours with the bridge four hundred metres below.
• Common mistake: Wandering into the trenches. The edges are loose and slip after rain.

2. Cesnigir Bridge

A pointed-arch stone bridge over the Kizilirmak between Karakecili and Koprukoy, dated to the 13th century and the Anatolian Seljuk period. The name is said to come from the cesnigir, the palace official who oversaw food. The river runs through a narrow bed here, so the span is short while the arch stands high.

There was a caravanserai beside it. The art historian Kurt Erdmann documented the Cesnigir han on visits in 1953 and 1957, but nothing survives and the inventory lists it as lost, so you are looking at half of a staging post.

The valley is the real subject. On both sides the Kizilirmak runs between steep walls, and locally the stretch is called a canyon. The depth is modest, nothing on a Cappadocian scale, but it opens without warning in flat steppe and in early or late light the rock turns red.

• Getting there: Directly below Buklukale, on the same road.
• Time: 30 to 45 minutes.
• Common mistake: Coming at midday, when overhead light flattens the valley.

3. Kapulukaya Dam

A dam on the Kizilirmak southwest of the city, built between 1979 and 1989, with a 61-metre wall. It supplies Kirikkale's drinking water and generates electricity. The approach road opens out over the valley, where the river is far narrower and rockier than the city would lead you to expect.

The reservoir stretches between Bahsili and Keskin and is the most used weekend ground in the province. People fish from the bank and picnic on the flats. Water levels swing from year to year, and in dry years the shoreline pulls back and leaves a band of mud.

The wall itself is an energy facility, with no trail or viewing terrace around it. You park on the verge and look. The usable shore is further down, on the Karaahmetli side.

• Getting there: Southwest of the city via Hacilar.
• Time: 30 minutes, half a day combined with Karaahmetli.
• Note: Respect the restricted-area signs around the wall and power station.

4. Karaahmetli Nature Park

A 107-hectare site on the shore of the Kapulukaya reservoir, below Karaahmetli village in Bahsili district, designated a nature park in 2009. Most of it is steppe with a small planted section, so shade comes from rows of planted trees rather than natural woodland.

This is the only properly organised outdoor site in the province. There are tent and caravan pitches, picnic tables, shelters, toilets and parking. People fish from the shore and walk along it. At weekends families from Kirikkale and Ankara fill the place; midweek it is close to empty.

Calibrate expectations. Steppe rather than forest, a reservoir rather than a lake. Midsummer afternoons are hot and windless and the shaded tables go early, so spring and autumn are better. The last stretch down from the village can be gravel.

• Getting there: Southwest of the city via Bahsili and Karaahmetli village.
• Time: Half a day.
• Note: Entry and camping rules are set by the forestry administration.

5. Hasandede Mosque and Tomb

In the town of Hasandede, about 12 km from the city centre, the mosque and the tomb stand side by side. The building is said to date from the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent in the 16th century. Hasan Dede, buried in the tomb, appears in local accounts as a dervish who came from Khorasan, joined Ottoman campaigns and mediated disputes in the region. His poetry is placed in the line of Ahmed Yesevi and Haci Bektas-i Veli. A second tomb holds his sons and daughter.

Remember what this place is. People come all year, and numbers rise around the Haci Bektas-i Veli commemorations in August. Most come to pray rather than to sightsee, so keep that in mind when photographing.

The town repays a walk. Some old stone houses are still standing, and population has fallen sharply since 1990, so the streets are quiet.

• Getting there: South of the city, turning off the Keskin road.
• Time: 1 hour.
• Note: Fridays and religious days are busy.

6. Weapons Industry Museum

The only place that explains why Kirikkale exists. The museum sits inside the Machine and Chemical Industry works in the city. It opened in 1990 and moved into a larger space in 1993. The collection covers rifles, pistols, ammunition and technical equipment produced from the Ottoman period onwards, and it is one of very few rooms in Turkey where that history runs in one line.

A practical warning: this is a corporate museum inside an industrial plant, not a municipal one. Entry rules, identity checks and hours depend on the institution and can change, so ring ahead. Group visits normally need notice, and photography may be restricted.

Afterwards, look at the factory quarters in the centre. The housing blocks, the workers' club buildings and the wide boulevards continue the same story.

• Getting there: From the city centre, through the plant entrance.
• Time: 1 to 1.5 hours.
• Common mistake: Turning up unannounced. Being sent away at the gate is a real possibility.

7. Keskin and the Stone School

Keskin lies southeast of the city, around half an hour's drive. Its best-known building is the Tas Mektep, a rectangular Republican-era school in red Ankara stone. It served for years as a children's and public library and is now the Haci Tasan Culture Centre, run by the district governorship. The name comes from Haci Tasan, a bozlak singer from Keskin, and that is not incidental: the district is one of the homes of the Abdal tradition. Asking about that music tells you more than the buildings do.

The town also has the Sulu Magara, a gallery under a mosque originally cut as a mine in antiquity. It is within walking distance but poorly signposted. Southwest of Keskin, in Haydardede village, stands the Haydar Sultan tomb, an important Alevi visiting site with no inscription and no known date.

• Getting there: Southeast of the city on the Kirsehir road.
• Time: 2 hours, which covers a small district town.
• Common mistake: Finding the culture centre shut at the weekend.

8. Mount Dinek

A ridge between Keskin and Baliseyh whose high point clears 1,700 metres. It stands out from a long way off because everything around it is flat, and it turns up in local folk songs. The summit falls within Keskin while the northern slopes face Baliseyh. Locally it is called both Dinek and Denek, and you will hear either.

An outdoor and horse-riding area has been set up on the northern flank in recent years, gathering bungalows, tents, archery and a zipline in one spot. People do ski when snow comes, but there is no organised ski centre, so expect no lifts and no pistes.

The reason to go is the view. The height gain is not dramatic, but because the surroundings are level you can see most of the Kizilirmak basin from the ridge. Slopes green up in spring and turn yellow after July, and there are no trees on the crest for shade.

• Getting there: From either Keskin or Baliseyh, on village roads.
• Time: Half a day.
• Note: Visibility on the ridge road collapses in fog.

9. Kocubaba Tomb and Mosque

In Kocubaba village in Baliseyh district, northeast of the city. The tomb has an octagonal plan, a dome inside and a pyramidal roof outside, built in a mix of cut and rubble stone. There is no inscription, so the date is unknown; old photographs show the trace of a plaque above the door that is no longer there.

Local accounts make Kocu Baba one of the dervishes of Haci Bektas-i Veli. Evliya Celebi writes of spending three days here, which puts the site in use as a stopping point and a shrine by the 17th century at the latest. The graveyard holds the burials of the Dedeler lineage, said to descend from his family, and the mosque next door carries the same name.

People still come to make vows, so this is a place to look at rather than wander through. The village is small and the detour off the main road is short.

• Getting there: North from Baliseyh on the village road.
• Time: 45 minutes.
• Note: Shoes come off inside the tomb and quiet is expected.

10. Karabekir Bridge and Delice

Delice occupies the northeastern corner of the province, where the roads from Ankara split towards Samsun and Sivas. East of the town, near Cogul, stands a bridge completed in 1936: the Karabekir bridge. Its concrete body and hard lines break with the stone-bridge habits of the period, and from a distance it reads as a suspension bridge. It is one of the few pieces of early Republican engineering you can walk up to in the province.

The town of Cerikli, also in Delice, has a 20th-century clock tower on its square, forming a small Republican-era group with the old railway station. Cerikli grew because of the railway, which is the provincial story repeated at village scale.

Do not plan this as a trip of its own. Delice is 60 km from the city with little in between, so route through on the way to Corum or Samsun.

• Getting there: Northeast of the city on the Samsun road.
• Time: An hour as a roadside stop.
• Common mistake: Looking for the bridge in the town. It is east, on a village road.

When to go

April to June is the best window. The steppe is green, the Kizilirmak runs full, and the reservoir shore has not filled up yet.

September and October come second, with clear air, a quiet Karaahmetli and the Ertugrul Gazi festival at Karakecili in early September.

July and August are hot and dry with almost no shade. December to February is cold and colourless, and snow makes village roads awkward, though main routes stay open.

How many days

One full day covers the main line: Kapulukaya and Karaahmetli in the morning, Buklukale and the Cesnigir bridge in the afternoon.

Give a second day to the south, for Hasandede, Keskin and Mount Dinek. A third is not needed, since Baliseyh and Delice work on the way out.

Where to stay

Almost all accommodation is in the provincial capital, around the main square. There are few hotels, most working for business travellers and university visitors, so midweek can be full.

Outside the centre there are no regular hotels. Karaahmetli has camping and caravan pitches and there is bungalow accommodation on the Mount Dinek side, both seasonal.

Getting around

Ankara is about 80 km away, roughly an hour by motorway and the D200. Kirikkale sits on the junction between Ankara and the Samsun, Sivas and Kayseri directions, so bus connections are good.

The railway comes in two layers. The Ankara to Sivas high-speed station opened in 2023 northeast of the centre. The conventional line runs through the city itself, and Irmak station is where the branch to Karabuk splits off.

A car is effectively required. Minibuses reach the district towns, but not Buklukale, Karaahmetli, Haydardede or Mount Dinek.

What to eat

Cooking here is Central Anatolian steppe food: bulgur, yoghurt, tarhana and meat. Keskin tava is a pot dish named after the district, arabasi a winter soup eaten with a piece of dough. Anali kizli bulgur dumplings and stuffed pumpkin are common on home tables.

Sizgit is meat browned and kept in its own fat, still made in the villages. Wild greens such as madimak and omac appear in spring, and tarhana comes in flour and yoghurt versions.

Traditional restaurants concentrate along the bazaar streets. Choice in the districts is thin, so do not leave lunch to chance around Delice and Sulakyurt.

Honest warnings

Kirikkale is not a tourist province. All ten stops fit into a single day and none justifies the journey alone. Treat it as a day added to an Ankara itinerary.

There is no historic quarter to walk in the city. The centre is a 20th-century industrial town, and it helps to arrive knowing that.

Signage is weak. At Buklukale, Haydardede and the Sulu Magara you may need to ask directions in the village.

Some districts have almost nothing. No stops are listed here for Sulakyurt, Celebi or Yahsihan, because nothing verifiable turned up that was worth the drive, and inventing something would be worse than leaving the gap.

Prices, hours and access rules change quickly, so confirm the museum and the nature park officially.

Frequently asked questions

**Is Kirikkale enough for a trip on its own?** No. One full day covers the main stops. It works better as a break added to an Ankara or Cappadocia journey.

**Can it be done as a day trip from Ankara?** Yes, and that is the sensible way. Eighty kilometres and an hour of driving, out in the morning and back by evening.

**What is there to see at Buklukale?** An excavation area, lines of stone and a hill overlooking the Kizilirmak valley. There are no visitor facilities.

**When is the Karakecili festival?** The Ertugrul Gazi commemoration is usually held in early September. The link between the Karakecili tribe, the Kayi branch and Ertugrul Gazi rests on local tradition and a claimed genealogy rather than documented history.

**Is there an archaeology museum in Kirikkale?** There is no state archaeology museum. The only museum open to visitors is the Weapons Industry Museum inside the industrial plant.