Koca Katran is a cedar of Lebanon inside the Çığlıkara Nature Conservation Area, at the Bölükkatran locality in the Doğantaş quarter of Elmalı district, Antalya province. Whether it can be seen at all depends on that setting: the directorate states that the area the tree stands in is used only for scientific research, and Çığlıkara's own page says entry and exit there are prohibited without special permission.
The tree was declared a natural monument on 21 February 1995. Its age is stated as 720 years, without being called an estimate; it is 26 metres tall and 2.80 metres across. Size, age and what the directorate calls extreme growth are the reasons for the protection. Nothing has been built at the site.
A different monument tree in Mersin province carries almost the same name, Kocakatran, and is a cedar too, of 647 years and 40 metres. It is not this tree.
The route the directorate gives runs to Elmalı and from there by private car into Çığlıkara, to Doğantaş and the Bölükkatran locality.
- Designated
- 21.02.1995
When to go
- Climate
- Across Antalya as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 10.1 °C in January to 28.6 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in April, May, October and November; rainfall is heaviest in December (251 mm) and lightest in August (4 mm). Long-term means for 1930-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
