Uşak
Uşak is a city in the Central Aegean region of Turkey, with a population in 2022 of 236,366. It has a historic quarter, but the main drawcards are its museum featuring the Lydian treasures, and the canyons and antiquities in the surrounding countryside.
Understand
Uşak is called "Aegean" but is 240 km from the coast, and its climate is more like Anatolia. It's an ancient weaving centre, with a distinctive style of rug long exported to Europe, whereby Ushak has become an English term for such rugs. Vermeer's painting The Procuress shows an Ushak offered along with other goodies to buy sex. Modern industries include foodstuffs and bathroom tiles. It also has a university, and there is a student buzz in the centre.
Get in
By plane
Zafer Airport (KZR IATA), 100 km northeast towards Kütahya, has flights from Istanbul (IST and SAW). A shuttle bus connects with these and runs to Uşak.
Adnan Menderes Airport (ADB IATA), 240 km west near Izmir, has a much wider range of destinations.
Uşak's own airport is used for flight training and private aviation but no longer has commercial flights.
By train
A regional train leaves Izmir Basmane around 07:30 and 15:00 and takes six hours via Manisa, Turgutlu and Alaşehir. The westward return leaves at 06:20 and 18:30.
Konya Mavi runs from Izmir Basmane at 20:00 by the same route to reach Uşak at 02:00. It plods on via Afyonkarahisar and Akşehir to reach Konya at 09:00. The return is similarly inconvenient, leaving Konya at 19:00 to reach Uşak at 02:00 and Izmir by 08:00.
🌍 Uşak railway station is on Orhan Dengiz Blv, 1 km south of the main turn-off into the centre from D300/E96.
By bus
Kamil Koç (now part of Flixbus) runs every 30 min from Izmir, taking 3 hr 30 min via Turgutlu, Salihli (for Sardis) and Kula. Buses continue via Kütahya to Eskişehir, or via Afyon and Polatlı to Ankara, or via Kütahya, İnegöl, Bursa and Gebze to Istanbul.
🌍 Uşak Otogarı the intercity bus terminal is by the main highway west side of town. It's reasonably clean. Dolmuşes will take you downtown.
Get around
The centre is flat and compact, so is walkable. A fleet of public minibuses run to the suburbs, but you are unlikely to use them.
İsmet Paşa Caddesi is the teeming thoroughfare heading north from the highway overpass; its pedestrianized northern half is particularly lively.
The sides of the main streets in the centre are marked as no parking zones, but the signs are so unheeded throughout the day that you should consider yourself lucky if you can find enough space to stick your car into. Trying the side alleys is a better idea.
See
- 🌍 Archaeological Museum, Orhan Dengiz Blv 29 (just north of railway station), ☏ +90 276 212 1841. Tu-Su 09:00-17:00. Extensive museum over three floors. The lower floor is from the Paleolithic to the Roman era, and the intermediate floor exhibits trade in Ottoman Uşak. The top floor is the standout, describing the Lydians, the local pre-Roman kingdom. The Lydian or Karun treasure is the stuff of movies: in 1966 tomb robbers found the burial chamber of a Lydian princess. They smuggled the goods abroad and some found their way to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art; the treasures were repatriated in 1993 after a long legal battle. Sceptics doubted that Uşak was a suitable place for their return, and in 2007 it was discovered that some exhibits had been replaced by fakes: the museum director was jailed. Adult 60 TL.
- 🌍 Atatürk Heykeli is the monument to the War of Independence at the north end of İsmet Paşa Cd.
- Old Town is north of the monument. Nearby buildings are neoclassical mansions mostly converted to shops, restaurants and hotels, and a small bazaar and historic mosques. Further north are simpler Ottoman houses.
- Grand Mosque (Ulu Camii) at Mimar Sinan Cd 17 was built around 1419, late in the Germiyanid period. The inscription giving that date only refers to its courtyard fountain, but the mosque cannot have been without a water supply.
- Kırık Minare Mosque is 100 m northwest of Grand Mosque, a stubby low building of 1826.
- 🌍 Atatürk and Ethnography Museum, Hisarkapı Uluyolu Sk 75, ☏ +90 276 227 2889. Tu-Su 08:30-17:30. Merchant's house used as Turkish military headquarters in 1920-22 when the battlefront with Greece was nearby, and where Atatürk received the surrender of General Nikolaos Trikoupis. You'll be lucky to find it open.
- Carpet Museum (Uşak Halı Kilim Müzesi), 1st Gülek Sk 1 (50 m south of Ethnography Museum), ☏ +90 276 221 4000. Daily 09:15-17:00. Display of locally-made carpets.
- 🌍 City History Museum, Besni Cd, ☏ +90 276 224 3247. Tu-Su 08:30-17:00. City history into modern times. Free.
Further out
- With your own vehicle, all the outlying sites can be seen in a day, probably in the order below. You need dry weather as the dirt roads can be slithery. By public transport you could reach Sebaste or Ulubey or Çataltepe / Taşyaran Valley but it will take all day.
- 🌍 Sebaste is 34 km southeast of Uşak, on D595 near Selçikler. It's the scrappy ruins of a Roman settlement named in honour of Emperor Augustus. That dissolute old goat is commemorated in several similar place-names.
- 🌍 Cılandras Bridge 38 km south of Uşak was an aqueduct built by the Phrygians about 500 BC to supply the town of Pepuza. It's a single 24 m arch across the ravine of the Banaz creek, and you can walk over but there's no onward path. The waterfall adjacent is artificial, the discharge sluice of a hydroelectric power plant. The site is free 24 hours and a popular picnic area.
- Pepuza 2 km west can be reached by a rough trail, unsuitable for cars; not much to see. From the 2nd century AD it was the centre of Montanism, a Christian sect who believed that the Messiah would descend upon a nearby mountain. Orthodox Christians dithered for 400 years over whether the Montanists should be credited, laughed off or chopped into small pieces, then the sect disappeared anyway, with still no sign of the Messiah on any mountain in the known world.
- 🌍 Ulubey Canyon is 32 km south of Uşak and 1 km east of Ulubey village. The canyon has been carved by creeks flowing towards Büyük Menderes River; the system is about 45 km long and 150 m deep, with dozens of side-canyons. The site is free 24 hours but you pay to access the glass-floored balcony (10 TL in 2023) and tourist-trappy add-ons such as the Upside-Down House.
- 🌍 Blaundus is 44 Orthodox km southwest of Uşak. (From Ulubey head west towards Inay and Eşme, soon branching south, and follow the brown signs onto the dirt road.) It's the sparse remains of an ancient Greek settlement, conquered by Alexander the Great, whom the locals honoured by minting coins inscribed Blaundeon Makedonon; archaeological excavations continue. The site is remarkable, a "peninsula" almost cut off by a loop of canyon, a tributary of Ulubey Canyon northeast. You enter through a gate and scrap of wall across the neck of the peninsula. It's open daily 09:00-17:00, free.
- 🌍 Çataltepe Bridge is 50 km west of Uşak on D300, a three-arched humpback bridge from the Seljuk period.
- Taşyaran Valley is reached by the side lane branching off 500 m east of the bridge. Follow the lane for 2 km through the tiny village of Çaykenarı; it loops to the other end of the bridge. The valley is a dramatic ravine with its rockface sculpted into waves. Steep stairways descend to the stream, with numerous intermediate viewpoints. A road marked piknik alanları leads to a wooden observation tower on the highest point of the site. Taşyaran means "rock-chopper" so think what it might do to your tyres.
Do
- Football: Uşakspor play soccer away down in the amateur leagues. Their home ground is Bir Eylül Stadyumu 200 m west of the Atatürk monument.
Buy
Lots of small supermarkets. Nearest to Old Town is Efe, on Polis Cd 100 m north of the Atatürk monument, open 24 hours.
Eat
- İsmet Paşa Cd is the main eating strip. Tarhana is the local delicacy, a thick soup of flour and veg, fermented, dried and grinded to a powder — a predecessor of instant soups.
- Meydan Döner, İsmet Paşa Cd 81 (facing Atatürk statue). Daily 11:00-21:00. Chain outlet for döner wraps.
- 🌍 Donas, İsmet Paşa Cd 72/B, ☏ +90 276 222 2230. Daily 11:00-23:00. Fast food chain serving Donas, a sticky and hearty döner wrap.
- 🌍 Çorbacı Dede, Atatürk Blv 26, ☏ +90 546 612 3532. 24 hours. This is the place for late night soups: lentil, chicken or offal, served with toasted bread and a tray of greens. Çorba means soup and the military rank of çorbacı, equivalent to colonel, means the fellow in charge of soup; it's become a slang word for "boss".
Drink
- Chicago, İsmet Paşa Cd 70 (next to Donas), ☏ +90 507 119 5591. Daily 09:00-00:00. Late spot with live music on Saturday nights.
Sleep
- 🌍 Blaundus Otel, Barbaros Cd 30, ☏ +90 276 222 0606. Central and usually clean, has parking. B&B double 1000 TL.
- 🌍 Anemon Uşak Otel, Polis Sk 16/1, ☏ +90 276 227 2323. Smart clean friendly hotel. B&B double 2000 TL.
- Dülgeroğlu Oteli, Cumhuriyet Cd 36 (100 m west of Grand Mosque), ☏ +90 276 227 3773. Ranged around the courtyard of a converted han, this could be really charming, but just feels musty and old. B&B double 1000 TL.
- 🌍 Grand Hotel Uzcan, Şehit Mustafa Kemal Akın Sk 3 (off İsmet Paşa Cd), ☏ +90 276 224 6060. Clean central hotel with parking. B&B double 1200 TL.
- 🌍 Ramada, Gazi Blv, ☏ +90 276 222 2020. Clean but basic place, by D300 main highway so it's convenient for motorists, but street noise can be a problem. B&B double 2000 TL.
Connect
Uşak and its approach highways have 4G from all Turkish carriers. As of Jan 2024, 5G has not rolled out in Turkey.
Go next
- Kula is the first major town to the west. It has a preserved old town and an extensive volcanic area, recognized a global geopark, in its outskirts.
- Izmir and Manisa further to the west are major regional cities. Consider visiting the extensive ruins of the Lydian capital, Sardis, on the way.
- Denizli to the south is the hub for visiting the surreally white landscape of Pamukkale.
- Afyonkarahisar is a traditional city to the east, with a hilltop castle. The highways and railways diverge here northeast to Ankara, the national capital, and southeast to Konya, the capital of the medieval Seljuk Turks and the site of the shrine of Sufi mystic and poet Rumi.
- Çavdarhisar to the north has the impressive ruins of Aizanoi, including the Temple of Zeus. Kütahya, a city with a pretty old town and ancient tilemaking industry, is further on that direction.
| Routes through Uşak |
| Izmir ← Kula ← | W E | → Afyonkarahisar → Konya |