Ataturk Forest.. Istanbul's green oases

ArabiaWeather.com - Ismail Ghasemi - If you travel to Istanbul and want to escape from the crowds to a quiet place to take a break and breathe some fresh air, there is no doubt that you will find Ataturk Park and Forest opening its arms to embrace you.

It is a beautiful forest and one of the nicest places for hiking in Istanbul. It occupies a very vast area of about 296 hectares. It is located in the European part of the city, and exactly in the Sarayir Bahçeköy area, not far from the famous Belgrade Forest as well.

The forest was opened as a park in the year 1949 AD, and at that time more than 2000 species of plants and trees were brought from Japan, Spain, America and various parts of the world, and the forest became very popular for students to carry out their projects and research.

To enter the park, the visitor must purchase an entry ticket for an amount of five Turkish liras during regular days and ten liras during weekends and holidays, and of course you will also get a large forest map.

The Enchanted Forest Park includes a square with a beautiful fountain flowing with water, and other secondary roads branch out from it. If you follow the map well, you will not get lost inside it, but you will have a lot of fun and you may take your whole day to notice and recover yourself.

The forest includes 3 lakes and many trees and plants of various kinds, and some species are difficult to find anywhere else in the city and the whole of Turkey, and visitors are prohibited from tampering with the existing plant wealth in any way, as it is protected inside the park.

A visitor to the forest known as Atatürk Arboretumu, which means Atatürk Arboretum, can watch the birds with binoculars during the spring and autumn seasons, and some locals collect there edible mushrooms and herbs for some traditional food.

How do I get there?

Take the M1 metro to Hacıosman, then you can take the 42HM bus to Bahçeköy, walk a few minutes on Kemerburgaz Road to the Arboretum, and if you rent a car there is free parking.