Tuz Lake emerges as hub for healing tourism

ANKARA

Tuz Lake has welcomed scores of people from both within the country and around the world as a healing tourism destination, with the season recently kicking off at the lake located in the Central Anatolia region.

Uniting the borders of the three provinces of Ankara, Konya and Aksaray as the second-largest lake in Türkiye, Tuz Lake has become a hotspot for walking activities in recent years treating diseases such as foot fungus, foot odor problems and eczema.

Attracting hundreds of local and foreign tourists, the lake provides visitors of all ages with dramatic scenery and curative salt water. Some of the visitors fix upon walking barefoot to satisfy their nature hobbies, while others merely wander around the lake in order to find healing in the salt water.

Oktay Gök, a Turkish tourist residing in Belgium, has indicated that the lake aroused his attention after he conducted research which urged him to pay a visit to the natural wonder. “I traveled from Kırıkkale just to see this place. I heard that the water was healing,” he said.

Referring to the lake meeting 60 percent of Türkiye’s salt needs with 2 million tons of salt harvest, “It is great that the lake has the capacity to provide the country’s need for salt,” Gök said.

Tolga Aksoy, a visitor living on the coast of the lake said that they visited the place as they lived nearby and added: “We recommend everyone to pay a visit.”

“The lake not only offers good scenery, but also provides a healing spot for people with foot diseases with its water,” Aksoy emphasized, calling attention to the lake’s beauty and curative effect.

The lake is among the world's saltiest lakes – thus its name Tuz, meaning literally "salt" in Turkish – but it is also rich in terms of biological diversity.