Kırşehir, Turkey — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Kırşehir known for?

The geographical centre of all land surfaces on Earth falls inside this province of central Turkey, a fact of arithmetic rather than of scenery, and the ground it lands on is ordinary upland in the Central Anatolia Region. Elevation shapes the rest. The province averages roughly 985 metres above sea level, high enough that the air and the seasons behave as interior country rather than as anything lowland.

Where is Kırşehir?

Kırşehir occupies high ground in central Turkey, part of the Central Anatolia Region and a long way from any sea. The average elevation across the province runs to roughly 985 metres above sea level, enough to give the air the clarity of interior country and to keep the seasons sharper than they would be on lower ground. No coast comes near it.

The province sits deep inside a large landmass, and the consequences of that turn up in everything from the weather to the way the roads have been laid. One point here makes the position exact. The geographical centre of all land surfaces on Earth falls within Kırşehir, a calculation rather than a landmark, and nothing on the ground marks it out from the upland around it.

That is the appeal of the thing. A traveller looking for the middle of the world's land finds open country in the Central Anatolia Region, which says more about the shape of the continents than about the province. Between those two facts, the height and the centrality, the geography of the province is quickly summarised.

Wide upland fills it, the capital sits centrally within that upland, and the rest of central Turkey stretches away in every direction from a point that happens to be the middle of all the land there is.

What is Kırşehir like?

Kırşehir belongs to the Central Anatolia Region in more than the administrative sense. The province shares the interior's habits, with life organised around the provincial capital, a countryside of upland settlements, and a calendar answering to a hard winter and a hot summer rather than to any tourist season. Turkish is the language throughout.

Nothing here is aimed outward, which is part of why a visitor reads ordinary central Turkey more clearly in this province than in places used to being looked at. The capital gathers what there is. Kırşehir the town holds the institutions and the public occasions of the province, and the settlements scattered across the high country come in for anything larger than a local event.

Distance keeps things local. At around 985 metres and far inland, the province is not somewhere people reach by accident, so its habits have been formed by those who stay rather than by those passing through. The centre-of-the-land fact sits oddly against all of that.

A province quietly getting on with its own business happens to contain the calculated middle of every landmass on Earth, and the two things have nothing whatever to do with each other. That mismatch is worth the trip. Anyone who goes looking for the point spends a day in country that shows what the interior of Turkey is actually like.

What is the history of Kırşehir?

The interior has written most of the history here. Kırşehir lies high in central Turkey, in the part of the Central Anatolia Region where settling has always meant coping with distance, altitude, and long winters together. The capital gave the province its name.

Kırşehir the town has been the focus of this stretch of upland throughout the life of the province, and the ring of villages around it follows a pattern set by land worth working rather than by any route worth guarding.

What is the climate of Kırşehir?

Elevation sets the terms in Kırşehir. An average of roughly 985 metres above sea level, with no sea anywhere within reach of the Central Anatolia Region, gives Kırşehir the wide seasonal swing that high interior country always carries. Winters run long.

Summer heat settles hard over the open ground of central Turkey, and the gap between the two halves of the year is the single thing worth planning a visit around.

How do you get to Kırşehir?

Every arrival comes by road. Kırşehir has no coast and sits in the middle of the Central Anatolia Region, so the province is reached by road across the interior, and the provincial capital is where those roads converge. The last stretch is high driving.

Whichever direction a traveller comes from, the approach runs across open ground at around 985 metres, and the town appears out of the upland of central Turkey without much warning.