Street of Safranbolu

Safranbolu is a town and district of Karabük Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. It is about two hundred kilometers north of Ankara and about a hundred kilometers south of the Black Sea coast, or more precisely about 9 kilometers north of the city of Karabük. Former Turkish names of the town were Zalifre and Taraklıborlu and in Greek Saframpolis, Σαφραμπολις. It was part of Kastamonu Province until 1923 and Zonguldak Province between 1923 and 1995. According to the 2000 census, the population of the district is 47,257, of which 31,697 live in the town of Safranbolu. The district covers an area of 1,000 km² (386 sq mi), and the town lies at an elevation of 485 m (1,591 ft).

The Old Town preserves many old buildings, with 1008 registered historical artifacts. These are: 1 private museum, 25 mosques, 5 tombs, 8 historical fountains, 5 Turkish baths, 3 caravanserais, 1 historical clock tower, 1 sundial and hundreds of houses and mansions. Also there are mounds of ancient settlements, rock tombs and historical bridges. The Old Town is situated in a deep ravine in a fairly dry area in the rain shadow of the mountains. The New Town can be found on the plateau about two kilometers west of the Old Town.

The name of the town derives from 'saffron' and the Greek word 'polis' (city), since Safranbolu was a trading place and a center for growing saffron.Today saffron is still alive at the village of Davutobası which is 22 km east of Safranbolu and probably one of the best quality saffron in the world.

Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info)), is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia (mostly in the Anatolian peninsula) and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea is to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (which together form the Turkish Straits) demarcate the boundary between East Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.