For various other locations around the world with a similar name, see Lake District.

The Lakes District (Turkish: Göller Yöresi) is in the northern extension of Mediterranean Turkey.

Cities

• 1 Isparta the region's largest city is known for its floriculture; every spring hectares of rose fields around the "city of roses" flush in a pink bloom.
• 2 Eğirdir is a pleasant lakeside town, a stop-off for hikers on the St Paul Trail.
• 3 Burdur — one of the major towns of the region is a short distance inland from Lake Burdur.
• 4 Akşehir — the pleasant hometown of Nasrettin Hoca, a Sufi that is the source of an endless number of satires
• 5 Beyşehir — Seljuk monuments, a UNESCO-listed mosque, Hittite ruins, and early 20th-century infrastructure projects on the eponymous lake
• 6 Yalvaç — a town near the ruins of Antioch of Pisidia

Other destinations

The Nymphaeum at Sagalassos

• 1 Sagalassos in the mountains is the ruins of a Roman / Byzantine city.
• 2 Adada is the ruins of an ancient Pisidian city amidst striking mountain scenery; there's a stretch of Roman road nearby.
• 3 Yazılı Kanyon Nature Park 20 km southwest of the village of Sütçüler is a national park centred around a 10-km long, 100- to 400-m deep canyon, surrounded by verdant mountains. Parts of the canyon are dotted by Byzantine-era hermitages (hence the name, which translates "inscripted canyon" in Turkish), and canyoning opportunities galore.
• 4 Lake Salda has white sandy beaches and azure, crystal clear waters, and is dubbed the "Turkish Maldives".

Understand

Scattered by a variety of lakes — large and small, salt- and freshwater — the inland Lakes Districts is north of Pamphylia (Antalya Region) on the Mediterranean, over the Taurus mountain chain. It is substantially different from the neighbouring coastal areas, mass tourism destinations, to the south, and sees only a fraction of the number of visitors to them.

The Lakes District is more or less equivalent to the ancient region of Pisidia. In modern administrative terms, it corresponds to Isparta and Burdur Provinces and the western bits of Konya Province.

Get in

On foot

The Saint Paul Trail, an approximately 500-km marked hiking trail loosely following the first missionary journey of its eponym, starts from Perge east of Antalya and heads via Yazılı Kanyon, Adada, and Eğirdir to cross the lake to Antioch of Pisidia near Yalvaç, its northern trailhead.

Go next

• To the east, many roads lead to Konya, a major city that was the capital of medieval Seljuks.
• To the north, Afyonkarahisar is an old town dominated by a hilltop castle, and has extensive transportation options to the northwest of the country.
• To the west, Denizli is the hub for visiting the thermal pools of Pamukkale and has transportation links onward to the Southern Aegean coast.
• To the south, Antalya is a major resort and is the hub for visiting the rest of the Mediterranean coast.