Guide
The thermal springs at Tekke, in Denizli's Sarayköy district, are an ancient healing ground: the city of Karura was founded on the spot, and ancient writers record that its baths were used for health and treatment. The geographer Strabo, who came to the Lykos (Çürüksu) valley in AD 9, described a much-revered temple of Men Karou between Laodikeia, Attouda and Karura, with an important school of medicine beside it, the Herophileion, founded by Zeuxis.
Tekkeköy is among the areas the Ministry of Culture and Tourism declared a thermal tourism centre on 16 December 2006. Sarayköy itself stands on the Menderes plain on the Denizli–Aydın–İzmir highway, 22 kilometres from Denizli. Thermal facilities have been built in the villages of Tırkaz and Tekke, where the water comes out at 80 °C; the provincial culture and tourism directorate says it is good for rheumatism, skin and gynaecological diseases and urinary tract complaints.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Denizli as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 6 °C in January to 27.5 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in January (90 mm) and lightest in August (11 mm). Long-term means for 1957-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
