Rare volcanic formations to serve tourism

BARTIN - Anatolia News Agency

AA photo

With the launch of a new project, 80 million year old lava columns on the coast of Güzelcehisar in the Black Sea province of Bartın will be promoted in international fairs to try to draw more tourists to the region. The lava columns, which are 17 kilometers away from the city center in the Güzelcehisar village, offer a feast of history and nature.

Lava columns turned into a symmetrical structure as a result of the crystallization of lava flows from volcanoes. The number of visitors to these lava columns increases every other year. Now, with a new project, these volcanic structures will be promoted in national and international tourism fairs to draw more tourists to the region.

One-kilometer coast

Speaking to Anatolia news agency, Bartın Tourism and Culture Director Fuat Dursun said that the city was among the tourism destinations worth seeing thanks to its coasts, plateaus and inns. He said its one-kilometer coast drew particular interest from local and foreign tourists in the summer months, as well as the lava columns. “The 80 million year old lava columns make Güzelcehisar even more attractive,” he said.

Dursun said the width of the lava columns ranged from between 50 and 100 centimeters and that their length was above 50 meters. He said that such columns existed in Northern Ireland, Scotland and California and had also been taken under protection as natural heritage.

Dursun said the Güzelcehisar lava columns were in the National Geological Heritage Inventory as they were among the unique natural formations in the world.

“The Deil’s Postpile natural monument in California is being visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists from all around the world. Our directorate has been preparing projects to promote the lava columns in our region too. We will print brochures and release CDs and send them to national and international tourism fairs. Our goal is to make them the focus of interest for both nature adventurers and sea, sun and sea tourists,” he said.

Dursun also added that those who wanted to see the region and take photos of its lava columns had to climb over rocky regions, which could be very dangerous