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Ödemiş, from the Rooms of the Yıldız Hotel to the Highland Lake of Gölcük
Cultural

Ödemiş, from the Rooms of the Yıldız Hotel to the Highland Lake of Gölcük

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Ödemiş is a district centre at the eastern end of the Küçük Menderes plain, 123 metres above sea level; directly behind it the Bozdağlar range rises like a wall of more than 2,150 metres. This trip joins the two storeys of that wall.

Ödemiş, İzmir
Cultural
Radar Editör
September 30, 2026

About Trip

Ödemiş is a district centre at the eastern end of the Küçük Menderes plain, 123 metres above sea level; directly behind it the Bozdağlar range rises like a wall of more than 2,150 metres. This trip joins the two storeys of that wall. Below, inside the bazaar, a hotel building opened in 1927 now keeps the memory of the district: the Yıldız City Archive and Museum has divided a century of Ödemiş into rooms, with more than six thousand objects, more than twenty thousand documents and a specialist library. Above, in the middle of a highland plateau over a thousand metres up, lies Lake Gölcük, a seven-thousand-year-old dammed lake inside a pine forest, with a highland neighbourhood on its shore that fills in summer and empties in winter. Start the morning at the museum and end the afternoon on the lakeshore. A trip devoted to the timber mansions of Birgi already exists in this guide; in this article Birgi will appear only as a name along the road.

Getting there

The most enjoyable way from İzmir to Ödemiş is the railway. The Basmane-Ödemiş Regional Train of TCDD Taşımacılık runs six services each way every day on the 111.5 kilometre line; the journey takes about two hours and twenty minutes and the train comes right into Ödemiş town station in the district centre. Check the e-ticket site of TCDD Taşımacılık for current times and fares. By road, according to the Ödemiş Municipality, a bus leaves between İzmir and the district centre every half hour, and ESHOT line 795 links Torbalı with Ödemiş. The Ödemiş District Governorate counts seven separate road routes into the district; the road coming via Salihli crosses Bozdağ and descends into the district, so those arriving from the north reach the lake before the town. The museum is in the district centre, in the Akıncılar neighbourhood at the head of Mithatpaşa Street. Gölcük is 18 kilometres from the centre, and the road climbs in bends up the flank of the Bozdağlar. If you have no car of your own, ask locally at the Ödemiş Municipality about public transport options and times. The Culture Portal describes two separate roads to the lake: the one that leaves the İzmir-Ankara highway and crosses the mountain from the north via Turgutlu and Sart, or the one that climbs from Adnan Menderes Airport via Bayındır, Ödemiş and Birgi. The second suits the order of this article; you see the museum first, then climb to the highland.

The rooms of the Yıldız Hotel

The Yıldız Hotel was built in 1926 and opened in 1927; the ÇEKÜL Foundation counts it among the first modern buildings of Ödemiş, names its architect as Mario Efendi and describes its style as neoclassical. The Ödemiş Municipality expropriated the building in 2006; the restoration, carried out to a project prepared with the support of the Union of Historical Towns, was completed in 2009, and in 2008 the project received an implementation award in a competition promoting historic urban areas. The museum opened its doors on 25 February 2012. The upper floor of the hotel, whose stained glass and painted decoration have been preserved, was arranged as the museum and the lower floor as the specialist library and archive; the surviving part of the adjoining Keçecizade Han became storage, temporary exhibition rooms and a museum cafe. The total usable area is around 455 square metres: 14 rooms and 4 corridors in the hotel, 1 room and a 155 square metre exhibition hall in the han. According to the municipality's count, the collection holds 6,219 movable cultural objects, 20,815 documents in 29 fonds and 3,619 books; 406 people have made donations. The display is arranged room by room: shoemaker, barber, watchmaker, tobacco room, kitchen, dowry and wedding room, the room of the efes, and a hotel room left as it was. So what you walk through is not only display cases but a district bazaar and a house of the early twentieth century themselves. At the entrance go up to the upper floor first, walk the rooms in corridor order, then come down to the library on the lower floor; the documentary memory of the Küçük Menderes basin is here and open to researchers. Visiting days and hours may change; check the current information on the museum's own website or with the Ödemiş Municipality.

Lake Gölcük

Gölcük stands on top of the Bozdağlar in the middle of a highland plateau with an average altitude of 1,100 metres; the lake itself lies at around 1,050 metres according to the sources. According to Vikipedi the lake is an alluvial dam lake: material coming down the valley closed off the front of a tectonic depression with a natural dam. The Ödemiş Municipality gives the age of the lake as about seven thousand years. The sources give different figures for its size: the municipality says 0.84 square kilometres, Vikipedi 0.941 square kilometres, and Anadolu Agency about 75 hectares. It is 1,950 metres long and 1,100 metres at its widest point. It is a shallow lake; the average depth is a few metres, and values between 7 and 10 metres are given for its deepest point. The basin contains gneiss, quartz and schist, and pine forest surrounds the lake. An interesting detail passed on by the municipality: in the mud layers of the lake, fine ash particles were found from the volcano that erupted on Santorini about 3,500 years ago. So this small lake is an archive bearing witness to the natural history of the Aegean. The climate is also different from the plain: the July average is 19 degrees and the January average 3; there are about a thousand millimetres of rain a year and an average of 15 snowy days. The Gölcük neighbourhood around the lake is, in the municipality's words, perhaps the only settlement in Turkey that lives on the highland in the summer months and moves down to the plain in winter. By a decision published in the Official Gazette on 2 June 2021 the lake and its surroundings were declared a strictly protected sensitive area. On the shore there is a walking path and picnic areas, and amateur angling is practised; in summer those fleeing the Aegean heat cool off here, and in autumn, when the trees on the shore turn yellow, the water of the lake darkens. The Culture Portal names the highland as a stop for nature tourism and a camp site for sports clubs; the high altitude and cool air draw teams here for their training camps.

The foot of Bozdağ

North of the lake the road climbs to the settlement of Bozdağ; the sources give the distance between the two as between 5 and 11 kilometres, so you can see both in half a day. Bozdağ is the highest summit of the Bozdağlar range on the Ödemiş side; Vikipedi gives 2,159 metres and the municipality 2,157, and the mountain is the third highest peak of the Aegean Region after the Honaz and Murat mountains. Its ancient name was Tmolos. The Türkiye Tourism Encyclopedia places the Bozdağ Highland at 1,150 metres, 22 kilometres north of Birgi and 25 kilometres south of Salihli; it records that in the Ottoman period it was the summer residence of the princes and that Evliya Çelebi called it the Princes' Highland. The municipality lists the resting places inside the highland's oak and pine forest: Çınarlı Park under century-old plane trees, Mermeroluk, Şelale Park and the Kırkoluk fountain. The Bozdağlar article on Vikipedi also mentions the Kırkoluklar rest area with its spring water and regional produce; the mountain's thyme honey and linden honey are famous besides. According to the Culture Portal, Bozdağ, with its take-off point at 1,400 metres, is İzmir's paragliding centre; in flight the plains of Tire and Ödemiş lie underfoot. In winter a ski centre operates on the highland, and mountaineering festivals are held in February. The highland's produce is chestnuts, walnuts, potatoes and pine honey; you will find them in season at the village stalls along the road.

A walking suggestion

Begin the day in the Ödemiş bazaar, at the museum; an hour and a half is enough. Then take the 18 kilometre road up to Gölcük and walk around the lake: the shore is flat, the circuit takes less than an hour, and there is shade on the stretch along the edge of the forest. In the afternoon continue to the Bozdağ settlement and rest beside the cold spring water around Mermeroluk and Kırkoluk; if the sky is clear, the Küçük Menderes plain spreads out beneath your feet from the upper part of the highland. If you choose the road through Birgi on the way back you will pass in front of the mansions, but that trip deserves a separate day. For those who want to descend north towards Salihli, the mountain road is asphalt; once down on the plain you reach Sart, the capital of Lydia, and Anadolu Agency gives 30 kilometres from the lake to Sart.

Season and time of day

Gölcük's real season is late summer and autumn: while the summer heat presses on the plain, the July average on the highland is 19 degrees, and in October the colours of the forest turn. The highland neighbourhood largely empties in winter; the lakeshore is silent, and when snow has fallen ask about the state of the road before you set out. In spring, as the snow melts, the lake is at its fullest. Morning light comes well from the eastern shore of the lake, afternoon light from the forest side. Since the January average given by the municipality is 3 degrees, dress warmly in winter; even in summer the evening is cool. For the museum prefer a weekday morning, when the bazaar is quiet too.

Practical notes

  • The lake is a strictly protected sensitive area; do not light fires, leave no litter and do not tread on the shore plants.
  • The highland is markedly cooler than the plain; take an extra layer even in summer.
  • Ask about the photography rule at the museum entrance; those who wish to work in the archive should write in advance.
  • If you come by train, choose your return service in advance; there are six services a day and the last train may be early.
  • Village stalls selling chestnuts and honey on the Bozdağ road are open in season; there is no need to look for anything else.

Sources

Location - Ödemiş, from the Rooms of the Yıldız Hotel to the Highland Lake of Gölcük

Trip Info
CityÖdemiş, İzmir
TypeCultural
DateSeptember 30, 2026
SourceRadar Editör
Radar TürkiyeAuthorRadar TürkiyeVisit SourceGet Directions