Sultanmurat Mid-Summer Highland Festival

About the festival

The Mid-Summer Highland Festival (Yayla Ortası Şenlikleri) is a traditional summer gathering on the Sultanmurat plateau in Trabzon's Çaykara district, at around 2,000 metres on the edge of the forest line. According to the provincial culture and tourism directorate, it is held every year on 20 August and, as its name suggests, marks the middle of the highland season. The plateau's name comes from the account that Sultan Murad IV led Friday prayers here in 1635 on his return from a campaign in Iran; a sermon stone stands on the site. The plateau has electricity, water, shops, a bakery, a coffeehouse, a mosque, a hotel and guesthouses. Reached via the Trabzon–Çaykara–Ataköy road, it also hosts a separate memorial day every 23 June for soldiers who died in 1916.