Tekirdag Overview

Overview

Tekirdag is located about 150km west of Istanbul,  in the Thrace, the european part of the Republic of Türkiye . Tekirdag is worldwide known with it's famous Raki, called " Tekirdag Rakisi".  It is sold all over Turkey including all the airports. It is a national drink of Turkey, 45 degree, made from grape  to be mixed with cold  water (1/2) and some ice cubes,  it changes its color to milky white. It is similar to the Greek's Ouzo with the flavour of anise.  The best way to drink raki with Turkish white cheese (fetta),  meat and water melon. Tekirdag is also famous for its meat balls, called  Tekirdag Köfte. It is an agricultural town where most people grow sun  flowers all over the place.

If you  are in the area make sure you drive to south of  Tekirdag to Kumbag and follow to shore line to Ucmakdere-Sarköy shoreline road where the best  grapes are grown and visit the wine yards/wine factories. This is one of most famous spot for  the Turkish wines. This road is very unique which goes to Murefte and than to  Saros Bay.  However, this road can only good for cars/mini buses not for big buses. It is a country dirt road but the scenary is excellent. It has a very good picking place when you reach the shore, you will pass one village and east of village there is  a park next the shore, it is an ideal place to get rest and have picnic.

The  road is subparallel to the world  famous  fault, called " The North Anatolian Fault ".  The fault reachs to shore from the sea at  Ucmakdere and continues on land  till it  reaches to Saros Bay.   As you may know , the most of earthquakes  in Turkey are caused by this fault. The fault is  1500km long, it crosses the country E-W direction and  starts around  Erzincan,  in eastern Turkey and it goes to Greece. You may touch the fault surface while draving along the road which has been killing thousands of people in the  past.  The geology along the road is facinating. As a geologist, I did lots of field work for ARCO International Oil and Gas Company where the most important reservoir and sources rock crops out at the surface on this road.

The  provence of Tekirdag is surrounded by three seas; Black Sea, Marmara Sea and Agean Sea. People from western Turkey, mainly from Istanbul have summer houses  on the Marmara Sea  and Aegean Sea Shore lines at the provence of Tekirdag.  The most important spot is in Bay of Saros where the water is crystal clear.

Corlu and Cerkezköy are two important cities in the  provence and  outcoming industrial cities, located 40-60 km  NE of Tekirdag. After the late 1970's the region evolved into an industrial area bearing people from all over Türkiye. As in the 1970's both area were  only  small farmers' towns.  But this has changed rapidly. In 2005 the population has grown up to an amount of  over 250.000 people. The railroad connection and also the new TEM highway connections make it a preferable location for local and international industry. Main sectors in both cities are textile,  glass factory, mining, lumber, sun flower oil factories, gas run power plants, automotive, petroleum activities and pharmacy.