Uludag is located 150 km from Istanbul and 35 km from Bursa. Almost every hotel has its own lifts here, the cost of using which is included in the price of accommodation (but this does not mean at all that the lifts of one hotel are closed to guests of others: a ski pass for the lift of a “foreign” hotel can always be bought at its lower station, it can be for several lifts or several days). Snow cover (its maximum thickness is 3 meters) is preserved from the second half of December to the end of March. The slopes for skiing are located at an altitude of 1750-2543 m above sea level, wide and well-groomed, they mostly pass through the forest. The best time for skiing is between December and March. For Turkey climate and geography, please check TopPharmacySchools.
Modern Uludag, and in antiquity the legendary Small Olympus Mysia, according to mythology, is the place where the Gods watched the outcome of the Trojan War. “Uludag” means “Big Mountain” and is the highest mountain in Western Anatolia. In the Middle Ages, this mountain was known as a place of solitude for Byzantine monks, as a result of which the Turkish name “Keshish-dag” was assigned to Uludag, which means “Monastic Mountain”.
Not far from the top of Uludag is an abandoned tungsten mine. The mine and plant for its processing, built in 1974 for 60 million dollars, were closed in 1989 due to the inability to pay off production.
How to get to Uludag
Flight to Istanbul, from where you can get to Bursa by plane or by bus (travel time is about 4 hours). From Bursa to Uludag there are minibuses (journey time about 40 minutes) and funiculars.
The funicular line consists of two parts: the first is the Kadiyayla-Saryalan cable car, the lifts of which can accommodate up to 30 people, the second is the Saryalan-Chobankaya lift, which can accommodate 2 people. The first station of the cable car is located at an altitude of 374 m, the intermediate station, Kadiyayla, at an altitude of 1231 m, and finally the final station, Saryalan, at an altitude of 1634 m. km). It is worth bearing in mind that it is forbidden to transport ski kits by cable car.
The second part of the cable car connecting the Saryalan station with the Chobankaya station, located at an altitude of 1711 m, operates only in the summer.
Trails of Uludag
The resort is equipped with a cable car, 5 chairlifts and 7 drag lifts. The total length of the tracks is 20 km, of which 10 are green, 8 are blue, 6 are red and 1 is black.
Ski Uludag is suitable for families and for lovers of soft, calm slopes. Beginners and intermediate skiers will find slopes to their taste here. For children, the resort has wide, well-groomed trails with good roll-outs. For experienced skiers there are longer and steeper pistes outside the forest area. The resort offers slalom, cross-country skiing and biathlon.
Uludag Hotels
Uludag Ski Center consists of two zones. In the first zone, investment in which has already been completed, there are 16 hotels. In the second zone, declared a tourist center in 1986, a land plot was allocated for 11 hotels distributed among investors and intended to accommodate 3,300 people. In addition, 12 state-owned hotels and 15 hotels belonging to the private sector are currently operating in the Uludag ski center. A total of 27 living quarters designed to accommodate 3,000 people. In addition to hotels, there are shopping and entertainment centers, a first-aid post, you can take an instructor and rent ski equipment.
Entertainment and attractions of Uludag
Of the natural attractions of Uludag, one can single out the national park of the same name, which is a refuge for several species of mountain birds, including bearded vultures, serpent eagles, goshawks, lesser spotted eagles, peregrine falcons, yellow-headed kinglets and others. On the territory of the park there are sparse butterflies “Apollo”, primroses, crocuses and mouse hyacinths grow, and a very rare upland owl, short-toed pika, crossbill and white-backed woodpecker live in the spruce forest. The park can be reached by car or by cable car. The distance between the national park and Uludag is about 12 km.
Excursions to Bursa depart from Uludag, an ancient city with a powerful excursion program. Bursa is the fourth largest city in Turkey after Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Bursa, once the capital of the great Ottoman Empire, still retains the remnants of its former power. Among the most remarkable monuments of Islamic architecture in Bursa is the Yesil Mosque or the Green Mosque, built in 1419-1424. and representing part of a large religious complex, consisting of a madrasah, a minaret and a tomb-mausoleum. The facade of the mosque is made of white marble, and the interior, thanks to which it has become the most famous building of the city, is decorated with tiles of green, blue, light blue, turquoise and azure colors and intricate Arabic script.
There is an archaeological museum in Bursa, which opened its doors to the first visitors in 1904. Artifacts dating back to the 3rd century BC are displayed in several halls of the museum. BC. – 15th c. AD and found during excavations in the territories once occupied by Bithynia and Mysia, and in the courtyard of the museum there are sculptures, tombstones, steles and sarcophagi.
80 km from Bursa there are hot thermal springs Yalova Termal with water temperature reaching 57-60 degrees above zero. The composition of water, which can be used not only for bathing, but also for drinking, includes sodium chloride, calcium sulfate and fluorides.
