Isauria Way

Isauria Way

For Rome, the Isaurian road and road networks were one of the most important symbols of sovereignty and tools of power. The courier organization (Curcus Publicus), which quickly carried news from the provinces to the central administration, provided the opportunity to govern the entire empire from Rome. Therefore, all Roman Emperors gave great importance to the construction of better and shorter roads, road maintenance, and control in order to learn what was happening in the lands under their sovereignty as soon as possible and to consolidate their power in this way. As a matter of fact, after the conquests, one of the first stages of the provincialization process of a region was the connection of cities with each other through a road network.

One of these roads was built to bring the lands of the Hominids and Isaurians, local people living in the Isauria Region, under Roman rule. The Isauria Way starts from Isauria Vetus (Bozkır) and extends to Gündoğmuş. These roads, which have been used for thousands of years, have continued to exist until today as the salt road, caravan route or, as the Romans called it, the Via Sebaste Road.

The Isauria Way is a walking path with a total length of 174 kilometers, starting from Bozkır (Konya) through the Taurus Mountains, passing through Akseki (Antalya) and Gündoğmuş (Antalya) villages and highlands, and ending in Gündoğmuş district centre.

Isauria Way trekking route starts from Konya's Bozkır district. It extends from Dikilitaş Highland to Dipsiz Lake, via Sultan Muğarı, Boğazyurt, Halkalıyazı, Sineklibucak, Kalkantaşı and Göktepe Highland, to Sarıhacılar and Akseki. The trekking route continues from Murtiçi and Fersin to Sarp Canyon, passes through Senir and ends in Gündoğmuş. In addition to ancient stone-paved roads, there are cisterns, inn ruins, wells, and historical bridges on the way. The road is 174 km long in total and can be completed on average in 11 days on foot.