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Inventory of Geomorphosites and Cultural Assets for the Development of Tourism in the Ayazini Region of the Mountainous Phrygia (Afyonkarahisar, Turkey)

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Abstract

Interesting landforms come to the fore in tourism destinations in Turkey as well as all around the world. In Turkey, subsequent to the volcanic Cappadocia, interesting landforms developed on the tuffs around Afyonkarahisar draw attention. Ayazini, a part of the İhsaniye district in the N of Afyonkarahisar province, has become one of the preferred destinations in ecotourism and cultural tourism in recent years. The prominence of Ayazini, one of the most beautiful destinations of the Phrygian civilization, is the result of the erosion and weathering processes of the land consisting of tuff and ignimbrites, which are the products of Lower Miocene-Pliocene volcanism. For the first time, 32 unique landforms, each more valuable than each other, in macro and micro dimensions, were defined as geomorphosites in volcanic terrain with the inventory methodology. Some of these are Ayazini Valley and Gorge, canyons, tuff plateaus, cuestas, fairy chimneys, badlands topographies, and various weathering forms. According to their formation characteristics, geomorphosites in the research area are 87.50% natural, 6.25% natural-anthropic, and 6.25% anthropic. According to the nature of the process, geomorphosites are 40.60% simple, 28.13% complex, and 31.25% system, and according to the dynamics, they are 50% passive and 50% active. This interesting tuff topography, called Mountainous Phrygia, became the living space of the Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, and Ottoman, respectively, after the Phrygians, and contains important cultural artifacts belonging to these civilizations. This study aims to determine the landforms with very high scientific, educational, aesthetic, and cultural values, which will make the research area an important geomorphological heritage area, and reveal their number, distribution, and characteristics. For this purpose, a detailed inventory methodology has been applied to the field, revealing the field’s morphological diversity, richness, and originality.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive suggestions and comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Faculty of Science and Letters, Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyonkarahisar, 03204, Turkey

    Mehmet Ali Özdemir, Hülya Kaymak & Enes Ertan Kulaksız

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  1. Mehmet Ali Özdemir
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  2. Hülya Kaymak
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  3. Enes Ertan Kulaksız
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Correspondence to Enes Ertan Kulaksız.

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Özdemir, M.A., Kaymak, H. & Kulaksız, E.E. Inventory of Geomorphosites and Cultural Assets for the Development of Tourism in the Ayazini Region of the Mountainous Phrygia (Afyonkarahisar, Turkey). Geoheritage 15, 16 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-022-00782-w

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