A Late-Tertiary Conifer-Hardwood Forest From the Vicinity of Güvem Village, Near Kızılcahamam, Ankara

• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration 1977-05-01
• Series: Bulletin of the Mineral Research and Exploration
• Subjects: -; Conifer-Hardwood
• Online Access: http://dergipark.gov.tr/bulletinofmre/issue/3914/52153?publisher=mta

It was in 1939 when I first visited Kızılcahamam to see the present conifer-hardwood forest as well as the famous hot springs with my friend Karamanoğlu, a fellow student from the Forestry College. I remember the long bus ride on the dusty old road from Ankara through Kurtboğazı and the dangerous curves of Kargasekmez. That time, Kamil's father Remzi Bey, assessor of the city, kindly invited me to stay in his three-story wooden house built in good taste according to early Ottoman architectural style for the country homes of Ankara. We took daily walks to explore the Scots pine forests associated with firs, aspens and oaks through the valleys as well as to the hot springs and mountain steppes over the gentle hills. In 1968, more than thirty years later, I visited Kızılcahamam again upon a picnic invitation by my old colleagues Mr. H. Aksoy, Prof. K. Karamanoğlu, Prof. N. Sönmez and Prof. O. Düzgüneş, and their families. After driving 14 miles north of Kızılcahamam, down the Çerkeş road, we passed Güvem and reached Beşkonak where we selected a neat meadow by the creek as our picnic site. The western slopes of the Kızılcahamam-Çerkeş road were still devoid of vegetation after the road banks were cut off by bulldozers and both horizontal and vertical layers of lacustrine sediments were exposed freely. A moderate amount of rain had fallen during the previous night. With Karamanoğlu, I walked along the road slopes, examining the fossil fragments by rolling rocks under our feet. The uppermost layer of the laminated diatomaceous earth was oriented vertically and the sheets of these spongy rocks were naturally split into book-size platelets. Due to the absorption of rainwater we could pull out any piece with great ease, just like pulling out books from a library shelf. Every piece of diatomaceous platelet was bearing a beautiful fossil impression.