Manisa

Urban architecture of the Kula Town

Kula is one of the best-protected sites of 18th-century Ottoman urban architecture in Turkey. Kula houses reflect not only the architectural style but also an overall image of the daily social life in the Ottoman cities. Today 800 out of 3000 historical buildings including, mosques, churches, fountains and famous mansions are designated under the Kula Urban Site and protected by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism) within Kula Town. The old Kula Town is located at the foot of the Kula Divlit cone lava flow. Wide usage of basalts (locally known as karataş-blackstone) and schists deeply influenced the architectural styles.

Kula Divlit Volcanic Park

The Kula Divlit Volcanic Park is located in the Kula-Salihli Geopark, northeast of the Kula district. This park contains all of the landforms that resulted from the third stage of volcanic activity. The Kula-Divlit cinder cone, AA types lava flow, parasitic cones, spatter cones, and lava tunnels and ditches can all be found within the park area. Within the park, there is a 2.7-kilometer-long pathway with wooden bridges and one bicycle track that leads visitors to the geosites (approx. length 34.8 km).

Kula Fairy Chimneys

The Fairy chimneys in the Kula-Salihli Geopark have been formed by a combination of surface water erosion, splash erosion, and tunneling erosion (piping) in the soft layers. The typical cap rocks are either cemented permeable sandstones or sometimes basalt boulders. The soft underlying rocks are often poorly consolidated impermeable sandy-clay lacustrine sediments. These often olive-greyish sediments are susceptible to splash erosion under direct raindrop impact causing surface run-off. This run-off flows along the edge following the cracks of the fracture patterns that cause steep narrow gullies. In strongly dissected badlands the steep relief gradients along the plateau edge trigger the process of piping which causes tunnel erosion causing gaps or windows in the soft rock. The collapse features of these tunnels later contribute to the formation of isolated fairy chimneys.

Çakırca Columnar Basalts

The columnar basalts were formed on the thick lava flows that came from Toytepe Volcano erupted about 1,260 Million years ago, located on the northernmost edge of Sarnıç Plato. When the lava came to the surface, its exterior surface contacted the surrounding atmosphere and began to cool fast. The cooling then continued gradually towards the interior of the lava in time. In meantime shrinking, and contraction occurred through the volume decrease due to the cooling in the lava layer.  Initially, this process caused the formation of hexagonal crack systems in the lava layer, and the cracks started to grow towards the interior of the layer in time. As a result, interlocking hexagonal columnar basalt structures were formed.   The contraction and shrinking developed in the lava from the center to around the lava equally caused the formation of interlocking hexagonal columnar basalt structures. Even though this columnar structure can be seen in many volcanic rocks, the characteristic columnar structure can be seen in the basalts. Scientific studies point out that contraction may be equally spaced if the thickness or composition of the lava flow is similar, which results in the formation of hexagonal columnar basalt.