Akçay

Hasanboğuldu

An area of small waterfalls and quite deep ponds on the hillside in verdant surroundings, Hasanboğuldu is a popular local picnic and freshwater swimming spot though, with a constant temperature of 7°C/45°F it's just as, if not more, "refreshing" as the seawater below at Akçay. However beautiful and peaceful the place nowadays may be, there is a a tragic love story behind the name of the place, which literally translates "Hasan was drowned": Hasan, a young farmer from the lowland village of Zeytinli, fell in love with Emine, a sturdy maiden from the nomadic tribes of the mountain. As a marriage between a sedentary farmer and a nomad was frowned upon, there was no way for Emine to move into Hasan's village, and as such Hasan would have to move to the upland pastures. Emine's family set a condition for Hasan to fulfill, so that he could prove that he would be hardy enough to overcome an austere mountain lifestyle: He had to carry 50 kg of pure salt over the mountains to Emine's tribe. Having failed the objection by knocking down at the halfway, Hasan commited a suicide in one of the ponds in what is now Hasanboğuldu. Emine, upon hearing the death of her lover, has also commited a suicide as well, by hanging herself on one of the plane trees next to the pond.