Tazi canyon is one of the most beautiful canyons in Turkey. It’s amazingly high and powerful. Tazi canyon is located not far from the Mediterranean coast, between Antalya and Side in the Koprulu National Park. It is always visited together with Koprulu canyon and is often accompanied by rafting along the Kopruchai river. The Kopruchai river is bright turquoise and flows through both canyons. Tazi canyon is 200-400 meter high. The surroundings are amazingly high and beautiful.
Tazi canyon — description
Tazi canyon was discovered only recently – in 2017 by a photographer who was walking around these places. Since that time, the tour industry is just emerging here. Indeed, when compared with other popular places, this one is more natural and a little wild. And that’s why I like it!
Here you can see pine trees, cypresses, cedars, as well as the following animals – deer, wolf, bear, rabbit, lynx, and goat. But don’t worry, you are unlikely to meet these animals since there are many people simultaneously walking along the trail to the canyon and making noise.
Tazi canyon is located 11 kilometers of the road higher than Koprulu canyon in the Koprulu National Park. A very picturesque place attracts a lot of tourist, both with guided tours and on their own.
How to get to Tazi canyon
Today, almost all tour agencies offer a guided tour to Tazi canyon, whether you are in Kemer, Antalya, or Side. The farthest road is from Kemer – about 2.5-3 hours. The closest one is from Antalya or Side – 1.5-2 hours. The road runs along a highway between Antalya and Side. Around a halfway between them, at the town of Serik, it turns from the coast to the mountains, past the ancient city of Aspendos. The entire road is good, mostly straight. But after Koprulu canyon and the Oluk bridge, it turns into a small, 30-minutes’ serpentine.
There are several ways to get to Tazi Canyon:
- on your own by a rented car. That’s what we did. We rented a car for the entire 14-days’ trip and got to all the interesting places on our own. Fortunately, the roads in Turkey are perfect!
- with a guided tour. It’s also a good option if you don’t have a driving license or are afraid to rent a car in a foreign country. Here, you can book a tour to Tazi canyon in advance.
- by public transport. But you can only get to the town of Serik. Then, you will anyway have to take a taxi. However, I’m not sure that a taxi will go to the canyon. Besides, you’ll need to go back somehow. Thus, the first 2 options — by car or with a guided tour – will be most appropriate in this case.
Keep in mind that if you go by car, right before the canyon there will be a place where you’ll be offered to walk about 2 km or rent an ATV for 60 liras and ride it. These 2 km of the road are unpaved and founderous. After these 2 km, you’ll find another parking lot (free). It is from here that another 200-300-meter-long trail will lead you to the observation spot, from which the entire Tazi canyon spreads before your eyes. Our car was Fiat Agean. Like many others, we decided to drive it these 2 km. The road wasn’t very good, but you can pass it if you don’t drive fast. Sometimes, there were rocks on the road. We had to overcome them very carefully so as not to puncture the wheel. As soon as we drove to the platform the road led to, we were a bit shocked by the number of cars we saw at the parking (a lot of them).
Most of them were jeeps, which carried a lot of tourists at once. I thought that one group could consist of as many as 5-6 jeeps. Parking is free, as well as the admission to Tazi canyon, since the canyon is located in the national park. It was good news.
Our visit to Tazi canyon
We arrived at Tazi canyon after visiting the Oluk bridge in Koprulu Canyon – it was around 12 o’clock in the afternoon. The sun was high, and it was getting really hot. But since we were in the mountains, the air temperature was slightly lower than on the coast. We felt comfortable. The road to Tazi canyon was more than good. I can even call it excellent and very beautiful! The road itself was a real trip, since great views opened to the right and to the left along the way. Since we were driving by ourselves, we stopped and took beautiful pictures.
We admired the forests and the mountain tops. And the most picturesque Tazi canyon was waiting ahead. As we arrived and parked the car, we saw a 200-300-meters-long path. You can’t get lost here, since there’s only one trail and people are walking along it all the time.
Sometimes, the road was like this – with large stones, which immediately reminded me of the Horton Place Park in Sri Lanka.
In 10 minutes, a fantastic view spreads before our eyes. There are a lot of people, and everyone is queuing to take pictures on the rocks on the cliff edge.
There are several places where you can take beautiful photos. First, we walked around all the places, checked a view and an angle of this view to the canyon and the Kopruchai river. Then, we joined the queue at a place we decided to take photos from. We spent 15 minutes queueing and finally took the cherished photos! And challenged our courage to stand on the high cliff edge!
Now, I suddenly noticed a huge crack on the stone in the photo. At that time, I felt so excited that I didn’t see it. To tell the truth, it’s just breathtaking – it’s the highest canyon I’ve ever been to! I wish I could take a photo from a drone. By the way, there was a man with a drone at the entrance to the canyon and offered to take photos with it. But I didn’t really understand whether he was on a tour, or whether any tourist could get this service.
The river in the canyon is seen differently from different stones. From some spots, it’s not visible at all, since the canyon is 400 meters high. In the photo below, we moved to the right if you face the canyon. There cliffs in the background are very beautiful here.
In this place, you feel like a small dot in this huge world.
In the photo below, you can clearly see the river at the canyon bottom.
And here you can see, how high the cliffs are. They are incredibly high! You can enjoy walking slowly, sitting, and watching the beautiful views created by nature.
Unfortunately, if you come here with a tour, you’ll have only 20 minutes for this place. Many people don’t even have time to take beautiful pictures, since groups of tourists are brought here at once, and everyone immediately rushes to the cliff edge. However, the tour usually includes rafting along the Kopruchai river. It’s an interesting activity as well.
Be very careful when taking photos at the cliff edge. There are no fences here, and you’re the only one responsible for your life and health.
Our walk took about an hour, and we returned to the parking. There’s a place at the parking where a woman cooks right before you the most popular local flatbread – gozleme with a cheese, herbs, and potato filling. This flatbread costs 20 liras.
We bought a flatbread each. I must say in advance that it was tastier with cheese and herbs than with cheese only.
Recently, a zip line over the canyon was opened here. But it begins in a 15-minutes’ drive from this place. We were offered to ride the zip-line for 60 euros with a gift.
Then we got in the car and drove back. Along the way, we stopped at 2 observation platforms.
The next platform probably turned out to be a part of Koprulu canyon, since we saw small waterfalls there. A local told us about them when he offered rafting in that canyon.
It’s no less picturesque and beautiful than Tazi Canyon, but of course, it’s much lower.
I was very glad that we stayed here because there were absolutely no people and I could feel even more united with nature.
We had a great time and drove back to the coast, where the beaches of Antalya – Lara and Konyalti – were waiting for us.
Useful information
- If you go on your own using the Maps.me map, you’ll a marker there — a turn to Tazi canyon. It’s wrong! This turn leads to the end of the zip line, which was recently opened here. The road is very narrow for one car. No way two cars can get here at the same time. You shouldn’t turn there and drive further along a good, paved road. On the map below, I will mark where Tazi canyon is exactly located and where its parking is.
- If you want to eat, at Tazi canyon you can have only gozleme flatbreads. There are also a couple of cafes at the Oluk bridge where the rafting route begins.
- Wear comfortable shoes to make it convenient to step on large rocks and climb to photo spots.