Gala Gölü was declared the 36th national park of Türkiye in March 2005, and its boundary was changed in April 2020 to 5,923.49 hectares.
What the park holds is counted precisely: 1,043 living species in all, 511 plants and 532 animals. Among the animals are 232 birds, 44 mammals, 27 freshwater fish, 25 reptiles and nine amphibians, with 167 insect species among the invertebrates and 36 kinds of butterfly. Three plants and one insect here are endemic. The park lies between the Enez and İpsala districts of Edirne, and the capacity recorded is small: 100 visitors and 10 vehicles.
The endemic plants named in the flora section are two pinks, Dianthus ingoldbyi and Dianthus lydus, along with Taraxacum aznavourii, Centaurea polyclada and Campanula lyrata subsp. lyrata. Among the plants of medicinal or economic use, 22 are used medicinally and 13 as ornamentals. The species listed as being in active economic use today are field maple, terebinth, ivy, immortelle, cornelian cherry, Turkey oak, kermes oak, fig, dog rose and narrow-leaved cattail. The fish of high economic value in the lake are eel, pikeperch, carp and pike.
The bird list is the reason to come, and part of it is a record of things going wrong. Among the species counted here are several under protection because their numbers are falling worldwide: white-headed duck, white-tailed eagle, osprey, Dalmatian pelican and pygmy cormorant. Others are at risk because of what happens to them in this particular place, swans and pelicans before all. The Directorate General of Nature Conservation and National Parks names those threats without softening them — pelicans are killed because they eat large quantities of fish, and swans are caught and taken out of the area because they are in demand as ornamental birds. Glossy ibis, spur-winged lapwing, purple heron, black stork, ruddy shelduck, common shelduck and kingfisher are also listed among the threatened species of the park.
The mammals break down into one hedgehog species, six insectivores, twenty-four bats, one hare, seventeen rodents, nine carnivores and a single hoofed species, which makes bats by far the largest group. Of the twenty-five reptiles, the spotted turtle and the striped turtle live in the water system and along the shores in fragmented populations that are not large. A long-term development plan setting out the land-use decisions for the park, so that the balance between protection and use could be established and the lake left to later generations as a national inheritance, was approved on 15 May 2013.
- Designated
- 5.03.2005
Entry fee
- Marmara group 1 · category 1 · Per person
- 85 ₺
When to go
- Climate
- Across Edirne as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 2.8 °C in January to 24.8 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in December (71 mm) and lightest in August (23 mm). Long-term means for 1930-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
