AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Rising 1,774 metres above the Edremit Gulf on Turkey's northwestern coast, Mount Kaz—known in antiquity as Mount Ida—claims a place few mountains can match: witness to the Trojan War in Homer's Iliad, the stage for history's first beauty contest, and the subject of a living Turkish legend. Today it is the beating heart of Kazdağı National Park, a lush 21,450-hectare sanctuary of endemic firs, cold mountain springs, and hilltop stone villages that reward every kind of visitor from casual walkers to seasoned trekkers.↗↗↗
A Mountain of Legends
Homer called it "full of fountains, mother of wild beasts," and the description remains startlingly accurate. In Greek mythology, Mount Ida was the site where Paris judged the beauty contest between Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena—an act of vanity that sparked the Trojan War. The gods themselves were said to watch the battle from the mountain's ridges. The Roman poet Virgil also honoured it in the Aeneid, calling it the "Mountain of the Goddess."↗↗
