Ahırlı · TR
Taşkesiği Yaylası
Taşkesiği Yaylası is a highland summer pasture perched at roughly 1,800 metres on the northern shoulders of the Taurus (Toros) Mountains, in the far south of Konya province. In Turkish a *yayla* is a cool mountain meadow that shepherds and villagers traditionally migrate to for the summer, and Taşkesiği still lives that role: a green, breezy plateau of meadows, springs and forest edges that people leave the sweltering lowlands to reach. It sits right on the meeting point of three districts—Bozkır, Ahırlı and Yalıhüyük—so the pastures stretch across a borderland of small mountain villages. The pin on the map is logged as a hiking area, and it carries an unusually high 4.9 rating from visitors who come for the air, the light and the wide-open quiet.
What sets Taşkesiği apart from a generic viewpoint is that it remains a working landscape rather than a curated park. Each summer, after the Feast of the Sacrifice, herders drive goats, chickens and geese up from the Mediterranean coast to spend the season on these heights, boiling carob pods into molasses in great cauldrons. For a walker, that means a plateau that feels genuinely lived-in—sheep bells, smoke from a shepherd's hearth, and a small yayla mosque standing among the meadows—paired with gentle trails suited to hiking, cycling, jogging and birdwatching.