Cankiri
Çankırı's Hittite salt mines have operated for 5,000 years—2026 tests whether 5,000 daily visitors seeking respiratory therapy can coexist with 1.6 million tons of annual industrial extraction.
Çankırı exists because salt deposits formed 24 to 37 million years ago created a resource that humans have extracted continuously for 5,000 years. The Hittites began mining here around 3000 BCE; every civilization since has continued the practice. This is path dependence measured in millennia—the same underground formations that fed Bronze Age trade now yield 1.6 million tons annually from private operations.
The region's history reflects this mineral inheritance. Known as Gangra, the city served as capital of the ancient Paphlagonian kings before Roman incorporation around 6 BCE, when it was renamed Germanicopolis. The Seljuq Turks captured it after their 1071 victory at Malazgirt; various Turkmen dynasties contested control until final Ottoman incorporation in the 15th century. Sinan, court architect to Süleyman the Magnificent, designed the great mosque around 1550—a monument to the province's importance in the imperial system.
The transformation came when extraction became spectacle. The Salt Cave, located 20 kilometers from the city center in Balıbağ Village, opened rock salt chambers covering 18,000 square meters to tourists who descend 150 meters underground. The cave now hosts 3,000 to 5,000 daily visitors, drawn by the otherworldly formations and purported health benefits for asthma and bronchitis sufferers. A 200-year-old preserved donkey and reliefs of 7-9 million-year-old fossils add archaeological drama to geological wonder.
Present-day Çankırı has diversified beyond salt. Çankırı Karatekin University, established in 2007, attracts students to undergraduate and graduate programs. Agriculture—wheat, corn, beans, apples—covers the fertile surrounding lands. Industries cluster near Korgun and the provincial center, producing textiles, machinery, and food products. In 2024, the Çankırı mine produced 190,000 tons, bringing cumulative output to 2 million tons.
By 2026, Çankırı will test whether health tourism can scale alongside industrial extraction. The same salt that fed Hittite commerce now attracts visitors seeking respiratory relief—two applications of the same resource, separated by five thousand years of continuous human use.