The opium city of Anatolia — a volcanic rock castle, Ottoman hans, the world's best kaymak-and-honey breakfast, and the most underrated food town in Turkey
Afyon (formally Afyonkarahisar, 'Black Opium Castle') is a central Anatolian market town named for the opium poppies that were its primary crop for centuries — Turkey still produces legal medicinal opium under government control, and Afyon's fields and chemical processing plants are part of the global pharmaceutical supply chain. The black volcanic rock castle on a 200m pinnacle above the city is the central visual fact of the town. But Afyon's main contemporary claim to distinction is food: it is the undisputed Turkish capital of kaymak (clotted cream) and pastırma (spiced cured beef), and t…
Afyon's rock castle was occupied from the Hittite period onward, and the town was an important waypoint on the ancient trade routes across Anatolia. The city was the site of the decisive Battle of Dumlupınar (26–30 August 1922), the final engagement of the Greco-Turkish War that ended with the Greek defeat and the forced population exchanges of 1923. The 30 August victory is still Turkey's Victory Day; the battle site at Dumlupınar is 60km south of the city centre.