NTM016 SAPANCA

The lake takes its name from the district established on the south coast. It is referred to as Lake Ayan in old Turkish sources. The lake, which is well fed especially by the floods descending from the mountains in its south, empties its excess water into the Sakarya river via the Çark water from its eastern end. The streams feeding the lake are Karaçay, Kuruçay, Kurtköy, Mahmudiye, İstanbul, Karadere and Kaymakçı Streams. Partridge, woodcock and rabbit live on the mountain foothills extending to the north and south. All kinds of freshwater fish are caught in the lake.

Evliya Çelebi describes Sapanca as follows: “The circumference of Sapanca Lake is 24 miles. There are seventy-six villages like towns around four of them. The people of the sentence are red because they drink from the water of this estuary. Although they have many products, they do not have vineyards. There is a kind of melon and a watermelon by the lake, but a donkey can pull two of them. There are eighty piece (pieces) boats and schooners (grain boats) in this lake that they take men, timber and goods from the village. Seventy and eighty kinds of fish in this lake. They hunt and make a profit. Freshwater fish such as trout, carp, pike are very tasty. The depth of the lake is usually twenty fathoms in places. The water is very pure and clear. The women of the villages on the coast never use soap when they wash their clothes.”