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A River's Final Kilometres, the Sakarya's Journey through Sakarya

The Sakarya River and the province of Sakarya do not share a name by chance. The river rises near the Çifteler district of Eskişehir, draws a great arc across Central Anatolia and turns north to reach the Black Sea.

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A River's Final Kilometres, the Sakarya's Journey through Sakarya

The Sakarya River and the province of Sakarya do not share a name by chance. The river rises near the Çifteler district of Eskişehir, draws a great arc across Central Anatolia and turns north to reach the Black Sea. Turkey's third longest river after the Kızılırmak and the Euphrates, the Sakarya is cited in the sources at 824 kilometres and takes its name from Sangarius, a river god of Greek mythology. According to the 2025 tourism brochure of Sakarya Metropolitan Municipality, 159.5 kilometres of that course lie within the province of Sakarya. In this article we follow those final kilometres from south to north, from the quince orchards of Geyve to the river mouth at Karasu. Along the way we meet an Ottoman bridge, a mountain gorge, a Byzantine bridge the river abandoned, frontier castles, lakes dammed by the river and a delta.

The Geyve plain and the Bayezid II Bridge

The Sakarya River enters the province through the plains of Pamukova and Geyve. The Küre Encyclopaedia writes that thanks to their microclimate these two plains allow many fruits and vegetables other than citrus to be grown. The designation of origin document for Geyve quince also records that the fruit grows on the plain stretching east of the river from Alifuatpaşa to Bayat, irrigated entirely from the river. In October and November these orchards fill with yellow fruit.

The best place to truly see the river for the first time in Alifuatpaşa is the Bayezid II Bridge. According to the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, the bridge was commissioned by Bayezid II in the Hijri year 901, that is 1495, and its architect and engineer was Fakir Abdullah. The cut stone bridge rises on fourteen piers, is 150 metres long and 5.60 metres wide. Two of the arches later collapsed and were completed with iron; nine small round arches line up on the land side. The piers have triangular cutwaters on the upstream face and pentagonal ones downstream. An inscription dated 1495 to 1496 stands on the rear face of the small structure on the Geyve side, and the hatayi style ornament around its frame, in the Directorate's words, shows the preferences of Turkish decorative art at the end of the 15th century. The brochure recalls that the bridge stood at one of the important junctions of the period's road between Istanbul and Baghdad. On the islet north of the bridge you can also see the remains of a ruined bridge from the Byzantine period. The bridge is open to traffic today, so keep to the side when walking.

The Geyve Gorge, a river that split a mountain

Just north of Alifuatpaşa the river cuts through the Samanlı Mountains and opens the Geyve Gorge. The Wikipedia entry describes the gorge as a valley of about 15 kilometres and writes that the hills on its sides exceed a thousand metres. The highway and the railway wind through the gorge on either side of the river, linking the Geyve plain and the Adapazarı plain by the shortest route. According to the same entry, the historic Silk Road also reached Sapanca through this gorge after passing Göynük, Taraklı and Geyve. Near the village of Şerefiye on the floor of the gorge lie the remains of Çoban Kale from the late Roman period. The town of Alifuatpaşa takes its name from Ali Fuat Pasha, who served in the gorge during the years of the War of Independence. For those who want to see the gorge from above, the brochure mentions a viewing terrace in the Hırka neighbourhood of Geyve as a bird's eye spot over the Geyve Gorge.

Beşköprü, the bridge the river left behind

Leaving the gorge, the river spreads across the Adapazarı plain, and here the most surprising structure of the story appears. The Justinian Bridge in Serdivan, known locally as Beşköprü, today spans not the Sakarya River but the small Çark Suyu stream that carries the waters of Lake Sapanca. English Wikipedia writes that the river's present course passes about three kilometres east of the bridge. In other words, the bridge stayed where it was and the river moved. The Küre Encyclopaedia also records that the riverbed has shifted over time and begun to meander across the flatlands.

The bridge's dimensions and date are given differently in the sources. The Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism and the Culture Portal write that the East Roman Emperor Justinian built it between AD 558 and 560, that it is 365 metres long and 9.85 metres wide, with twelve arches in total. English Wikipedia, however, gives a length of 429 metres including the abutments at both ends; it reports that two contemporary poets praised the bridge's completion in 562 and that a chronicler recorded construction beginning in 559 to 560. According to the same source, before the stone bridge there was a wooden pontoon bridge here that was frequently swept away by floods. The Directorate explains that the bridge was first called pons, Latin for bridge, that the word gradually turned into Pontogephyra and then into Pentegephyra, meaning five bridges; yet the bridge does not have five arches. The bridge was restored in 1995 and closed to vehicle traffic, and in 2018 it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List. The Culture Portal gives its distance from the city centre as 8 kilometres.

Çark Suyu and the frontier castles of Byzantium

According to Wikipedia, the Çark Suyu that flows under the bridge is a 45 kilometre stream leaving the eastern end of Lake Sapanca. Its old name is Melas, and it took its present name from the water wheels built on it. Before electric pumps, Adapazarı's drinking water was lifted by these wheels; a wheel 16.30 metres in diameter, made entirely of wood, has been rebuilt in a city park. The brochure writes that the Sakarya River joins the Çark stream in the northern part of the Adapazarı plain, while the Küre Encyclopaedia notes that within the province the river also receives the Mudurnu stream.

The place where the two waters meet bears traces of the time when Byzantium saw this river as a frontier. The Küre Encyclopaedia recalls that the river served as a border, particularly in the 13th century. According to the Culture Portal, Seyifler Castle in Ferizli is a small castle of roughly 80 by 80 metres at the point where the Sakarya River and the Çark Suyu draw close, probably built to secure the bridges over the two streams; its two semicircular towers on the west and north still stand. A little to the southwest, Harmantepe Castle, according to the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, was built in the 12th or 13th century to protect Byzantium's eastern frontier, as part of a chain of outposts along the river's west bank that could see one another. The elliptical castle has walls 2 metres thick and 8 to 10 metres high, with six towers and five gates. The Directorate states that as of 2023 excavation and clearing work were under way and the castle was closed to visitors; check its current status before you go.

Lakes dammed by the river

The alluvium carried by the river built barriers across the plain, and lakes were born behind them. Poyrazlar Lake Nature Park north of Adapazarı covers an area of 67 hectares with a shoreline of 2,400 metres; the lake is 3 to 8 metres deep. The Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism writes that 154 bird species have been recorded at the lake, some resident and some summer or winter migrants. According to the brochure, Büyük Akgöl in Ferizli was also formed when the alluvium brought by the river built a barrier; most of the 19 square kilometre lake is reed bed and marsh, no stream feeds it, and it is fed by groundwater. There is an observation tower and a walking path on its shore.

Delta, floodplain forest and river mouth

Where the river approaches the Black Sea, the Sakarya Delta begins. The Wikipedia entry explains that unlike those of the Kızılırmak and Yeşilırmak, this delta does not project into the sea; because the sea deepens suddenly and the currents are strong, it has developed parallel to the coast. The delta holds floodplain forests, freshwater lakes and dunes together; according to the same entry, the dunes, about 5 metres high on average, form Turkey's longest continuous dune habitat. One of the delta's lakes is the Acarlar floodplain forest. The Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism writes that it covers an area of 1,562 hectares, that its depth reaches up to 1.5 metres and that it is surrounded by ash forests; there is a 1.5 kilometre walking path and viewing piers for visitors.

The journey ends at the Yenimahalle section of Karasu. The Directorate presents it as the point where fresh water meets salt water. The one kilometre path from the entrance of the neighbourhood to the sea is paved with cobblestones; you walk past fishing boats and centuries old plane trees and watch the sunset. The brochure also notes that the municipality redesigned this shore in 2025 and that the river is famous for the sturgeon, whose caviar is highly prized.

Practical notes for following the river

It is possible to make this journey in a single day, but spreading it over two days is better for understanding the river. One day can go to Geyve, Alifuatpaşa and Beşköprü, the second to Ferizli and the Karasu coast. As distances between the stops are long, travelling by car is the most practical option; the Culture Portal gives the distance from Seyifler Castle to the city centre as 30 kilometres. October is a good choice for the quince orchards and autumn colours, winter and spring for migrating birds, and summer evenings for the sunset at Yenimahalle. As entry conditions for the nature park and the floodplain forest are set by the operating institutions, check the current information on their official websites before you go.

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