Denizli

Sister cities

• Bursa
• Damascus
• Betzdorf
• Pavlodar
• Bilecik
• Brăila
• Tokat
• Amasya
• Muş

History

In antiquity, it was an important Greek town, called Attouda (Αττούδα), that existed through the ancient Greek and Roman eras; it was near the cities (Hierapolis and Laodicea on the Lycus) and flourished through the Byzantine period. The city was conquered by the Seljuk Turks. Inhabitants of Laodicea were also resettled here in the Seljuk period. Ibn Battuta visited the city, noting that: In it there are seven mosques for the observance of Friday prayers, and it has splendid gardens, perennial streams, and gushing springs. Most of the artisans there are Greek women, for in it are many Greeks who are subject to the Turks and who pay dues to the sultan, including the jizya, and other taxes". However, he also remarked that he needed to be escorted by horsemen on his way to the city, because the surrounding plain was "infested by a troop of brigands called al-Jarmiyān", referring to the Germiyanids. In the 17th century, the Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi visited Denizli and recorded the town as follows: "The city is called by Turks as (Denizli) (which means has abundant of water sources like sea in Turkish) as there are several rivers and lakes around it. In fact it is a four-day trip from the sea. Its fortress is of square shape built on flat ground. It has no ditches. Its periphery is 470 steps long. It has four gates. These are: painters gate in North, saddle-makers gate in the East, new Mosque gate in the South, and vineyard gate in the West. There are some fifty armed watchmen in the fortress, and they attend the shop. The main city is outside the fortress with 44 districts and 3600 houses. There are 57 small and large mosques and district mosques, seven madrasahs, seven children's schools, six baths and 17 dervish lodges. As everybody lives in vineyards the…

Geography

Denizli has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa or Trewartha: Cs), with hot, dry summers and mild to cool, rainy winters. The inland areas, like Çardak, Bozkurt, Çivril, and Çal districts/counties of the province are cooler and have a higher elevation than the seaside, western part of the Province. Therefore, there are climatic differences within the province and even in the Denizli urbanized area. The land is open to winds coming from the Aegean Sea as the mountains are perpendicular to the coastline. Highest recorded temperature: on 15 August 2007 Lowest recorded temperature: on 9 February 1965