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Ferhat and Şirin and Amasya's Water Canal

Anyone leaving the Yeşilırmak bank in Amasya and driving towards Tokat sees a long line carved into the rock beside the highway. Locals call it the Ferhat Water Canal and begin it with a love story.

Radar TürkiyeRadar Türkiye6 Kasım 2026
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Ferhat and Şirin and Amasya's Water Canal

Anyone leaving the Yeşilırmak bank in Amasya and driving towards Tokat sees a long line carved into the rock beside the highway. Locals call it the Ferhat Water Canal and begin it with a love story. Official sources say the same structure is a much older piece of engineering. This article reads the two accounts separately, then places them side by side.

The folk tale

In the tale in the Legends section of the Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, Ferhat is a young master decorator who adorns palaces. He loses his heart to Şirin, the sister of Amasya's ruler Mehmene Banu, and sends a matchmaker. The ruler does not want to give her sister away and demands an impossible task: water must be brought to the city. On the directorate's page the source of the water is a distant place called Şahinkayası. Ferhat takes up his pickaxe, splits the rocks, and the water finds its way.

The Ferhat Water Canal page on the Culture Portal tells the same story with small differences. There Ferhat is described as a famous decorator who lived in the Persian period, and the mountain he is asked to pierce is called Elma Dağı. So the details change even within the tale: the name of the mountain varies from source to source, and the person who brings the bad news to Şirin is a witch in one version and an old nanny in another. This is the nature of folk narratives; every teller fits the story to their own surroundings. We read these details as according to the tale and treat none of them as historical fact.

The end of the story is sad; the two lovers never unite. The most beautiful part of the tale is the image that remains: every spring a rose blooms in two places, and a dark thorn bush grows between them. This image lives in the memory of many people in Amasya.

The canal itself

According to Ministry of Culture and Tourism sources, the Ferhat Water Canal belongs to the Late Hellenistic and Early Roman period. The Culture Portal and the provincial directorate write that the canal was built to meet the water needs of ancient Amasya. They also describe the method: rocks were carved, tunnels opened, walls built in places, and the work followed the slope of the land according to a levelling system. The cultural inventory record gives the construction date as the first century BC and describes the structure as a water canal made by carving the edge of the main rock mass.

Technically, a levelling system means that water flows without pumps, only with the help of gravity and a gentle slope. For this the gradient must be carefully maintained along the whole line. Tunnelling in rock, building walls and covering the top with a vault are different solutions to this task. The official sources do not detail these methods; but tunnels, walls and vaults are mentioned together, so it is clear that the canal was not a uniform trench.

Where the canal begins and ends

According to the cultural inventory record, the canal begins at the water source at the Kırkgöz locality in Meşeli Çiftliği Village, which belongs to the central district of Amasya. From there it continues underground, vaulted in places, and ends in the Mehmet Paşa neighbourhood. The record also states that the structure carried water to the ancient settlement on the southern bank of the Yeşilırmak. This matters because it shows that the line fed the everyday water needs of a settlement, rather than a single pavilion or a single purpose.

The sources differ on length. The Culture Portal and the provincial directorate write that the canal is six kilometres long. The cultural inventory record says it is known to have a length of about twenty to twenty-five kilometres. The sources do not explain the difference; one may refer to the visible line and the other to the known total line, but that is a guess. We therefore give no single figure and relay both values on the official pages as they stand.

Where to see it

The part of the canal that can easily be seen from outside is at the Ferhatarası locality. According to the Culture Portal, this section running parallel to the highway is about two kilometres long. The same page says the canal begins at the third kilometre of the Amasya-Tokat highway. The address is given as Helvacı Neighbourhood. So you do not need to climb a mountain to see it; you can look from the roadside on foot, or leave your vehicle in a safe place.

The Ören Yerleri page of the Amasya Governorate also mentions the canal with the same dating and writes that it was built for the water needs of the city. The page says it was built by carving rock, opening tunnels and building vaulted walls in places, following the slope of the land in line with the water levelling system. The same page also lists the Royal Rock Tombs, carved into limestone on the southern slopes of Harşena Mountain in the Hellenistic period. So two different traces of Amasya's Hellenistic and Roman city life, one of water and one of monumental architecture, meet on the same official list.

The provincial directorate also says why the story was tied to this structure: because the canal lies at the foot of Mount Ferhat, the famous folk tale Ferhat and Şirin was referred to. Whether the name came from the tale or the tale from the name is not stated in the sources; they only say that the link was made.

Being so close to the highway is as much a warning as a convenience. Be careful at the roadside, do not turn your back to traffic, and do not step onto the highway to take photographs. Do not climb the rock surfaces that make up the canal, do not pull out stones and do not step on wall remains. The structure has a first-degree monumental protection record; in the cultural inventory the protection grade is written as monumental, 1.

A scientific view

An article published in 2006 in the Journal of the Faculty of Architecture of Middle East Technical University is devoted to the Ferhat Water Canal in Amasya. The authors are Gediz Urak and Işık Aksulu. The article states that the canal was built in the Late Hellenistic and Early Roman period. As far as can be gathered from the text, the study deals with the potentials and problems of the canal, offers proposals for its preservation and consolidation, and also notes that the canal lies next to the highway. The article's figure series includes photographs of finds such as terracotta, mosaic and an arrow tip from around the canal.

This article helps us draw the line between folk narrative and engineering. The legend names the Persian period; academic and official sources date the canal to the Late Hellenistic and Early Roman period. So the decorator in the tale and the people who carved the canal are not people of the same age. Knowing this does not lessen the value of the tale; on the contrary, it helps you see better why the city is remembered together with water and love.

A walking suggestion

It is possible to combine the visit with a city walk along the Yeşilırmak. First walk along the river in the city centre to see the layout of the Amasya valley, then head onto the Amasya-Tokat road. The time you need to see the canal is short; most of the time goes into reading the story and following the line in the rock. On your walk, look for the carved cross-section of the canal in the rock, the sections where walls were built, and the vaulted parts. Think about the slope of the land and try to guess for yourself which way the water ran. This small observation explains what a levelling system means far better than a textbook.

Season and light

Rock surfaces and wall texture look more legible in side light. Go in daylight, because details in the rock disappear in dim light and standing by the roadside in the dark is not safe. On rainy days the rock and soil may be slippery. On hot days take water with you, since the sources do not say whether there is shade to rest in beside the road.

Practical notes

The canal is a structure seen in the open air beside a road; unlike a museum it has no entry hours or ticket. Even so, check the pages of the Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism for current access and transport. The official sources do not say whether there is a place selling food or drink near the canal; meet your needs in the city centre. Leave the rocks, walls and finds around them where they are, and take no piece. If you come with children, do not let them out of reach beside the road.

To read the story, a quick look at the text in the directorate's Legends section before you go is enough. That way, when you stand at the canal you will be familiar with both the language of the rock and the language of the tale. The Culture Portal page also has photographs of the canal; looking at them beforehand helps you know what to look for.

In brief

The Ferhat Water Canal is a canal dated to the Late Hellenistic and Early Roman period, carrying the water of ancient Amasya, carved into rock and vaulted in places. Its source and destination are written in the cultural inventory; for its length there are figures ranging from six kilometres to twenty-five kilometres. The part seen from the roadside is about two kilometres. The Ferhat and Şirin story is a folk tale tied to this structure, and its details change from source to source. The traveller who reads both together sees that Amasya was built with water and with stories.

Sources

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