Guide
The hot springs of Sarıkaya rise in the middle of the district town, 77 km south-east of Yozgat, and have been declared a thermal tourism centre. The fluoride-bearing water emerges at 48°C with a flow of 28 litres a second and is left to cool to 38–40°C before use. On the strength of Ministry of Health analyses, the directorate lists it as a supporting treatment under medical supervision for sciatica, painful gynaecological conditions, spastic colitis, kidney, liver and gallbladder stones, and skin diseases. Visitors can stay at a three-star thermal hotel licensed by the ministry or at a municipally licensed guesthouse.
Roman remains stand at the heart of the spa. The site is said to be the ancient Basilica Therma (Aqua Sarvenae), and research has shown that it was already an important spa in antiquity.
Locally the springs are known as the Roman King's Daughter's Bath, after a legend: a Roman king living in Kayseri had a beautiful daughter whose illness left her unable to walk, and no doctor could cure her. Sent as a last hope to a muddy pool of hot water, she spent her days there and bathed in the mud with her friends, until little by little she walked again. Her father then had a marble pool built, faced with large cut stones; a city named after her, Öper or Hoperi, grew up around it, and an earthquake later destroyed all of it except the baths.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Yozgat as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -1.6 °C in January to 19.9 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in December (75 mm) and lightest in August (11 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
