Things to Do in Yozgat: From the Pine Grove to Kerkenes

Why does Yozgat slip past most travellers?

Anyone driving between Ankara and Sivas remembers Yozgat as a fuel stop. The town sits directly on the D200 highway, on a ridge above 1,300 metres, and from the car window you get a pine wood, a few minarets and then steppe again. What that window misses: this province holds Turkey's first national park, a second-century Roman bath whose water is still hot, and the largest Iron Age city on the Anatolian plateau.

You cannot run Yozgat from one base. The province is wide. From Yerköy in the west to Akdağmadeni in the east is roughly 150 kilometres, and the road keeps swapping plain for hill. The town centre is one day, the belt of excavation mounds around Sorgun is another, and the Sarıkaya and Boğazlıyan line in the south is a third. Plan it any other way and the day belongs to the car.

This guide has 13 numbered stops, and the numbers match the pins on the map below. Distances are approximate, mostly measured as the crow flies from central Yozgat. Entry conditions, dig seasons and opening hours change; check with the museum directorate, the municipality or the site's official page before you set out.

Quick answer

With one day, walk the centre: the Çamlık pine grove, the Çapanoğlu Grand Mosque and Yozgat Museum. Keep the second day for Kerkenes and the Sorgun mounds.

• Most distinctive stop: Kerkenes, a 2.5 square kilometre city burned in the mid sixth century BC and never rebuilt.
• Easiest stop: Yozgat Pine Grove National Park, declared in 1958 as Turkey's first, right beside the town.
• Biggest surprise: the Roman bath at Sarıkaya, where hot water still rises through second-century pools.

Things to do in Yozgat

1. Yozgat Pine Grove National Park

This was Turkey's first national park, declared on 5 February 1958. Anyone who hears that and expects a vast protected wilderness will be puzzled within five minutes, because the park is small and sits within walking distance of town. Its worth is not scale. It is an old stand of black pine that survived in the middle of the steppe, with shade underneath, a pond and picnic ground inside. On a scorching Yozgat afternoon it is usually the only green shelter around.

Come early and the place is empty, birds aside. Come on a Sunday afternoon and you get samovars, barbecue smoke and children everywhere. Choose your hour accordingly. The paths are marked and undemanding; trainers will do.

• Getting there: Two kilometres south of central Yozgat as the crow flies. Walkable, or take a minibus.
• Time: 1-2 hours, half a day with a picnic.
• While you're here: The Clock Tower (no. 4) and the central mosques fit the same day.
• Common mistake: Ruling out winter. The pines under snow are a different place entirely, but ask about road and park conditions first.

2. Çapanoğlu Grand Mosque

The mosque at the heart of town was built in the eighteenth century by the Çapanoğlu family, who governed this region as provincial notables and carried real weight in the Ottoman order. The scale of the building says as much. From outside it reads as plain stonework; the difference is inside, in the timber and painted decoration, where a late Ottoman baroque influence shows up on the ceiling and the galleries. That is not common in a provincial Anatolian mosque.

It is a working mosque, not an archaeological site. Arriving outside prayer times is both easier and more respectful. Women visitors need a headscarf; one is usually available at the door, but bringing your own is simpler.

• Getting there: Central Yozgat, a few hundred metres southwest of the Clock Tower. Walking distance.
• Time: 20-30 minutes.
• While you're here: Başçavuşoğlu Mosque (no. 3) and Yozgat Museum (no. 5) on the same walk.
• Common mistake: Wading in among worshippers for a photo. If anyone is praying, wait.

3. Başçavuşoğlu Mosque

The second stop in the centre is a smaller, quieter mosque a few hundred metres west of the Çapanoğlu Grand Mosque. It stands inside the old residential fabric, among single-storey stone houses, narrow lanes and courtyard walls. You do not come for an architectural masterpiece. You come to see what the centre of this town used to look like.

The same walk can take in Nakıpzade Mosque a couple of minutes away, part of the same old bazaar quarter. Three mosques and the streets between them fill about an hour.

• Getting there: Central Yozgat, five minutes on foot from the Çapanoğlu Grand Mosque.
• Time: 15-20 minutes, 45 minutes with the surrounding lanes.
• While you're here: Çapanoğlu Grand Mosque (no. 2), the Clock Tower (no. 4).
• Common mistake: Trying to drive to the door. The lanes are narrow; park near the square and walk.

4. Yozgat Clock Tower

The single-balcony clock tower on the main square went up in 1908, commissioned by the mayor of the day, Tevfikizade Ahmet Bey. For locals it is the meeting point, and saying "at the clock tower" is direction enough. The tower alone will not hold you for half an hour, but the square is a good place to read the town: tea stalls, shopkeepers and the early-evening walk. End the day here rather than start it, because Yozgat sits high enough that the evening cool arrives early even in summer and the square wakes up at that hour.

• Getting there: Central Yozgat, the main square. Walkable from anywhere in the centre.
• Time: 15-30 minutes, longer if you sit down.
• While you're here: The central mosques (no. 2, 3) and Yozgat Museum (no. 5).
• Common mistake: Taking a photo and moving on. A glass of tea on the square tells you more about the place.

5. Yozgat Museum (Nizamoğlu Mansion)

The museum occupies a two-storey timber mansion built in 1871, known as the Nizamoğlu Mansion. The Ministry of Culture bought the building in 1979 and, after restoration, opened it as a museum in 1985. The ground floor holds archaeological finds from the region; the upper floor covers Yozgat's ethnography, with manuscripts, local dress, carpets, household and kitchen tools and woodwork.

It is a small museum and will not eat two hours. Still, visit it before Kerkenes or Alişar rather than after: the stone and pottery in these cases came out of the mounds you are about to walk across, and in the reverse order those mounds look like heaps of earth.

• Getting there: Central Yozgat, on the same walking loop as the square and the mosques.
• Time: 45 minutes to an hour.
• While you're here: The Clock Tower (no. 4), the Çapanoğlu Grand Mosque (no. 2).
• Common mistake: Turning up on a closed day. Days and hours can change; confirm with the museum directorate.

6. Kerkenes

The province's most serious archaeology sits on a mountain southeast of town, west of Şahmuratlı village. Kerkenes is the largest pre-Hellenistic settlement on the Anatolian plateau: some seven kilometres of stone defences pierced by seven gates, enclosing 2.5 square kilometres. The city is generally identified with the Pteria described by Herodotus. It was sacked and burned in the middle of the sixth century BC, immediately after the battle of Pteria, and never reoccupied.

The showpiece is the Cappadocia Gate, where the gate structure and a carved stone stele have been exposed. Across the rest of the site you get wall lines, foundations and grass. Do not expect standing buildings. Expect scale: climb up, look around, and watch how far the walls run.

• Getting there: About 20 kilometres southeast of central Yozgat as the crow flies. A car is essential; the last stretch is unsealed.
• Time: 2-3 hours, half a day if you want to walk most of the site.
• While you're here: Gelingüllü Reservoir (no. 12) is on the same southern route.
• Common mistake: Going up at midday in city shoes. There is no shade, no water and little signage.

7. Uşaklı Höyük

North of Sorgun, near Büyüktaşlık village, this mound has become one of the more interesting digs of recent years. Turkish and Italian teams working together have uncovered Hittite-period structures, fragments of cuneiform tablets and later remains. Uşaklı is one candidate for Zippalanda, a sacred city named in Hittite texts. Nothing is settled: the same claim has been made for nearby Çadır Höyük.

What you actually see on site is a mound and some trenches. Know that going in. The value is standing on the ground where the Hittite world beyond Boğazköy is being looked for. When the team is working you may be able to watch from a distance, but entering the trenches needs permission.

• Getting there: About 20 kilometres east of central Yozgat as the crow flies. A car is needed.
• Time: 45 minutes to an hour.
• While you're here: Kerkenes (no. 6) can share the day.
• Common mistake: Walking into the excavation area uninvited. Watch from outside and ask if anyone is around.

8. Alişar Höyük

South of Sorgun, beside Alişar village, this mound was a turning point for Anatolian archaeology. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago excavated here between 1927 and 1932, and the sequence of layers it produced served for decades as a yardstick for dating central Anatolia. Occupation runs from the Chalcolithic through to the Iron Age, and the Iron Age levels are linked to the polity of Tabal.

What stands today is a broad rise among fields. Most of the material went to museums in Ankara and Chicago, so this is a visit to a place rather than to objects. The edges of the old trenches are still readable, which is enough to understand how the mound was cut.

• Getting there: About 40 kilometres southeast of central Yozgat as the crow flies, via Sorgun.
• Time: 30-45 minutes.
• While you're here: Uşaklı Höyük (no. 7) and Karakız (no. 9) sit on the same Sorgun route.
• Common mistake: Expecting signposts and a laid-out trail. This is farmland; asking for directions in the village is normal.

9. Karakız Roman quarry and sculpture workshop

East of Sorgun lies the strangest and least visited stop in the province. A Roman quarry and sculpture workshop operated here, and the rock still holds unfinished statues and half-cut blocks. Maybe an order was cancelled, maybe a mason walked away, maybe the stone cracked. Nobody knows, but the result is that you walk through a job that stopped two thousand years ago and was never resumed.

Sites like this are rare in Anatolia and most are not fenced. The ground is open, signage is weak, the surroundings rural. Get directions in advance and stay off the field track in wet weather. In return you will most likely have the place to yourself.

• Getting there: East via Sorgun by car; about 45 kilometres from central Yozgat as the crow flies.
• Time: 45 minutes to an hour.
• While you're here: Combines with Alişar Höyük (no. 8) in one day.
• Common mistake: Trusting satnav blindly. For the last few kilometres, ask in the village.

10. Sarıkaya Roman Bath (Basilica Therma)

The most striking structure in Yozgat sits in the middle of a district town. The Roman bath at Sarıkaya was built in the second century and stayed in use through Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman times. The pools are still there: the large one measures roughly 23 by 13 metres, and the water rising through its floor is around 45 degrees. This is not a dry ruin but a thermal source that has been running for two millennia. The site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 2018.

Locally it is called Kral Kızı Hamamı, the king's daughter's bath. It is often matched with ancient Aquae Saravenae, though that identification is disputed. Excavation and conservation work can close parts of the site, and swimming in the ancient pools is not on offer.

• Getting there: About 40 kilometres southeast of central Yozgat as the crow flies, in Sarıkaya town centre.
• Time: 1-1.5 hours.
• While you're here: Boğazlıyan (no. 11) fits the same southern day.
• Common mistake: Confusing the visit with a spa. The ancient pools are for viewing; thermal bathing happens at separate facilities in the district.

11. Boğazlıyan historic bath

The old bathhouse in Boğazlıyan stands in the district's original core, on the same street as the old mosque and its minaret. It is a small building with no tourist apparatus around it, but for anyone who has come this far south it is the most concrete way to see the town's past. The fabric around it still has stone walls, timber doors and narrow lanes.

Boğazlıyan is the centre of southern Yozgat, and the drive matters as much as the stop. You cross open steppe to get here, and the contrast with the north becomes obvious: pine and hills up there, wide plain down here.

• Getting there: About 70 kilometres south of central Yozgat as the crow flies, by car or district bus.
• Time: 20-30 minutes, 1-2 hours with the town centre.
• While you're here: The Sarıkaya Roman Bath (no. 10) is on the same southern route.
• Common mistake: Assuming you can go inside. Its use varies; ask the district municipality.

12. Gelingüllü Reservoir

The reservoir south of central Yozgat adds water and birds to a programme otherwise heavy with history. The lake is wide and its shore mostly empty; on a weekday you will probably have the view to yourself. Locals fish from the bank, and spring and autumn migration make it a decent spot for waterbirds.

Do not look for a laid-out beach, a cafe or a walking trail. You come to pull the car over, sit, walk a bit and look. It slots easily into the Kerkenes drive, and pairing the two in one day makes sense.

• Getting there: About 25 kilometres south of central Yozgat as the crow flies. A car is needed.
• Time: An hour.
• While you're here: Kerkenes (no. 6) on the same day.
• Common mistake: Planning to swim. This is an irrigation reservoir, the banks are not safe, stay out of the water.

13. Süreyyabey Reservoir

In the north of the province, in Çekerek district, this dam sits on the Çekerek river. The geography changes here: the steppe gives out, the valley deepens and the hills turn green. It is far enough from town to be awkward as a day trip, but it lands on the route if you are carrying on toward Amasya or Tokat.

The approach roads are rural and get harder in winter. Late summer and autumn are the easiest months, and the water level tends to show the valley at its best then. There is next to no accommodation nearby, so plan the return in daylight.

• Getting there: About 80 kilometres northeast of central Yozgat as the crow flies, via Çekerek.
• Time: 1-2 hours.
• While you're here: The northern route continues toward the Kazankaya canyon area and Aydıncık.
• Common mistake: Attempting it as a return day trip from the centre. The driving alone eats half the day.

When to go

Central Yozgat is above 1,300 metres, which makes for a long, hard winter. Snow is common from December to March and the field tracks and mounds effectively close. On the other hand the pine grove is beautiful under snow and the town belongs entirely to locals.

May and June are the most balanced window: the steppe is still green, temperatures are reasonable and the dig season has started. July and August get hot by day, though the altitude keeps evenings cool; walk the mounds before nine in the morning. September and October are the second good window, when the plain turns yellow after harvest and the light is at its best.

How many days

One full day covers the centre comfortably: pine grove, mosques, square and museum. Two days let you add the Sorgun route, where Kerkenes alone wants half a day and there is driving between mounds. A third day brings in the south, meaning Sarıkaya and Boğazlıyan. The northern side, Çekerek and Aydıncık, only makes sense on a fourth day or as you move on to another province.

Where to stay

Accommodation is concentrated in central Yozgat, which is also the most practical base for transport and for dinner. The town is small enough that staying central puts nearly everything within walking distance.

Sorgun is the second option if you want to shorten the eastern route; the district centre is sizeable and sits on the main road. Around Sarıkaya, lodging leans toward thermal use and occupancy swings with the season. Rooms are limited in the smaller districts, so book ahead at weekends and in summer. Confirm rates and availability directly with the property.

Getting around

Yozgat has no airport of its own; the nearest options are around Kayseri, Ankara Esenboğa and Sivas. The road is the main link: the D200 on the Ankara to Sivas axis runs through town, with Ankara roughly 220 kilometres away.

The Ankara to Sivas high-speed line crosses the province and stops at Yozgat and Sorgun, which makes arriving by train realistic. Check the official TCDD page for current timetables and station locations, and plan the onward hop into town separately.

Within the centre you can walk. For Kerkenes, Alişar, Karakız and the reservoirs a car is close to mandatory: public transport does not reach them and the final kilometres are unsealed. Buses run between districts but not often. Without a car, focus on the centre and the pine grove, and consider a one-day rental or an arrangement with a local taxi for the mounds.

What to eat

Yozgat's signature dish is testi kebabı, meat and vegetables sealed inside a clay pot and cooked slowly, then cracked open at the table. You will find it in the centre and in Sorgun, and it usually needs ordering ahead, so a phone call saves time.

In winter, ask for arabaşı. It is a spiced chicken soup served with squares of a firm, jelly-like dough that you lift with a spoon and dip into the broth. This is the centre of the local winter table and the preparation is particular to the region. In spring look for madımak, a wild greens dish with a short season.

On the sweet side, parmak çöreği and the local dry pastries stand out. Look for them in the old bazaar in the centre, in the bakery and patisserie lanes around the clock tower. Sorgun and Sarıkaya work the same way: the streets between the main avenue and the market square.

Honest warnings

1. **Treating Yozgat as a rest stop.** The province does not fit into a two-hour break; its best stops are outside town and need a car. 2. **Expecting museums at the mounds.** Kerkenes, Alişar and Uşaklı are open ground with thin signage and little interpretation. Do the museum first, the field second. 3. **Underestimating the distances.** Yerköy to Akdağmadeni is over 150 kilometres. Split the days by direction or spend them driving. 4. **Ignoring winter.** Field tracks can close between December and March. If there is snow, pull the programme back to the centre. 5. **Expecting to swim at Sarıkaya.** The ancient pools are for viewing; thermal bathing is at separate facilities in the district. 6. **Skipping the dig calendar.** Parts of active sites close during the season, so confirm officially before you go. 7. **Touring the mosques like ruins.** The central mosques are in daily use. Visit outside prayer times and keep quiet.

Planning questions

**What fits into one day in Yozgat?** The centre does: the pine grove in the morning, then the Çapanoğlu Grand Mosque, the square and Yozgat Museum. Do not try to squeeze Kerkenes in as well, it takes half a day.

**Can you reach Kerkenes without a car?** Realistically no. No public transport goes to the site and the last stretch is unsealed. A taxi arranged in town or a one-day rental are the workable options.

**Does Yozgat work with children?** The pine grove and the museum do. Keep the mounds short: no shade, no facilities, and do not overestimate how far anyone will walk.

**Which district for thermal water?** The Roman bath at Sarıkaya is for looking, not bathing. Thermal facilities operate around Sarıkaya, Yerköy and Boğazlıyan; confirm current conditions and prices directly with the operator.

**Is the high-speed train an option?** Yes. The Ankara to Sivas line crosses the province with stops at Yozgat and Sorgun. Check TCDD's official page for timetables and station locations, and arrange transport from the station into town.