The Tortum waterfall was formed in the middle of the eighteenth century, when a landslide from a mountain west of what is now the village of Balıklı blocked the course of the Tortum stream. The water of Lake Tortum passes over that landslide mass, between the Tev valley and the northern end of the lake, and falls from there. The falls are in Erzurum province.
Where the water falls, the stream bed runs over hard beds of limestone. The fall is twenty-two metres wide and forty-eight metres high. The falling water makes a rainbow above and a great plunge pool below, and the lake is registered as a natural monument.
Local people call the falls sudökülen, the pouring water. Students of Atatürk University coming from other parts of the country make up the largest group of visitors, and the falls also receive visitors from abroad.
A hydroelectric plant was built at the falls between 1952 and 1960 and began contributing to the country's electricity supply.
There is a picnic ground for visitors, and a viewing balcony with iron railings above the steps that lead down to the foot of the falls. Following those steps one can descend below the falls and climb back up by the steps on the other side. In spring the falls soak those standing on the balcony. There is a local tale that people who go down the viewing steps on the waterfall side and come up on the power station side are spared shortness of breath and heart complaints.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Erzurum as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -9.1 °C in January to 19.6 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in July and August; rainfall is heaviest in May (73 mm) and lightest in August (18 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
