The Çalkaya waterfalls are a natural monument of 13 hectares in the Salıpazarı district of Samsun, registered on 28 October 2021. The name comes from two things: the Çalkaya neighbourhood, and the formation made by the falls following one after another.
There is no public transport to the site. From Salıpazarı the approach runs on the concrete village road as far as the Çağlayan neighbourhood. Of the 64 kilometres from the centre of Samsun, 52 are asphalt, 9 concrete and 3 gravel; the monument is 12 kilometres from Salıpazarı.
The woods around the falls mix the conifers of the Black Sea mountains, oriental spruce and Nordmann fir, with juniper, and broadleaves including oriental beech, chestnut, sessile and pedunculate oak, hornbeam, hazel, walnut, oriental plane and bay laurel. Alder, black poplar, white willow and narrow-leaved ash follow the water, with dog rose and nettle at the margins. The birds range from the common buzzard and the lesser spotted eagle to the dipper of the stream, the red-backed shrike, the bee-eater, the tawny owl, the Syrian woodpecker and the blackbird.
The directorate lists no visitor facilities inside the monument, which is a place for walking and photography. It warns of falling rock, slippery ground, landslides, insect bites and the danger of drowning, and asks for particular care when taking photographs or moving about on the rocks.
- Designated
- 28.10.2021
Entry fee
- Black Sea group 2 · category 1 · Per person
- 65 ₺
When to go
- Climate
- Across Samsun as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 7.2 °C in February to 23.7 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in November (83 mm) and lightest in July (35 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
