Gümeli is a stand of ancient yew (Taxus baccata L.) in the forests of Alaplı district, Zonguldak. An area of 2,550 decares was declared the Gümeli Natural Monument on 11 March 2008 for this natural old yew woodland, which includes trees recorded at 1,987 and 1,164 years old alongside many others averaging between three and five centuries.
Surveys of the surrounding forest compartments found that they too qualify as natural old-growth forest, holding a large number of trees of monumental size.
The tree known as the Gümeli yew stands in the area adjoining the original monument, ground that has been taken within the monument's boundaries, and it was registered as a Monumental Tree on 2 April 2018. Researchers from the Faculty of Forestry at Karadeniz Technical University examined it in 2016, and the dendrochronology laboratory of İstanbul University's Faculty of Forestry worked from two increment cores taken from it in 2017; both put its age at no less than 1,950 years.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Zonguldak as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 6.3 °C in January to 22.1 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in December (154 mm) and lightest in May (55 mm). Long-term means for 1938-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
