Eğirdir


Eğirdir is a town and district of Isparta Province in the Mediterranean region of Turkey.

History

The town and the lake were formerly called Eğridir, a Turkish pronunciation of the town's old Greek name Akrotori. Moreover, the name "Eğridir" evokes spinning and flowers in its literal meaning.
The town was founded by the Hittites before falling to the Phrygians in around 1200 BC, and subsequently being conquered by the Lydians, the Persians and the forces of Alexander the Great. The Romans called the town Prostanna. During the Byzantine era, when it acquired its name of Akrotiri, it was the seat of a bishopric. The Seljuks conquered it around 1080 and held it until the Hamidoğulları tribe made it the capital of a small principality in 1280, which lasted until 1381. The 14th century traveller Ibn Battuta described it as "a great and populous city with fine bazaars and running streams, fruit trees and orchards", which was situated beside "a lake of sweet water". The Ottomans took control in 1417. Most of its population consisted of Greek Orthodox people until the population exchanges of the 1920s.

Features

Eğirdir lies between Lake Eğirdir and the Mount Sivri, and contains a castle said to have been built by Croesus, king of Lydia, although additions were built by the Romans, Byzantines, and Seljuks.
The population of Eğirdir was 19,417 in 2010, but swells in the summer months as part-time residents return for the holidays. Eğirdir is a fishing community and local residents fish in Lake Eğirdir year round.
Yeşil Ada is a small island connected to Eğirdir by a short causeway. Restaurants, hotels, pensions, and a few private residences fill the island. Known for its past as a Greek village, Yeşıl Ada still has quite a few stone homes remaining from the Greek era.
Locals claim that Eğirdir is home to the world's only walk-through minaret.