I wrote a short magazine for the Kizilirmak River, which was a part of my childhood and in a sense my hometown. Of course, with maps and statistics.

The big activities of my childhood were spent in Kizilirmak: fishing, swimming, washing sheep. A drought could be understood by looking at how much the river had receded from the bridge piers. I had heard that the gendarmes were hanging kidnappers from the bridge and beating them, I was young. If you had a field by the river, you were fine.

Spring would come, the snow would melt, there would be a flood that would pass by our house with a loud noise, and you would find peace in Kizilirmak. The stream (the stream) where frogs, small fish and crabs lived would dry up before reaching the river. Sivas would dry up in June. The crops would turn yellow, and the young people who were mowing the scythes would go to the river during the break. It took me a long time to understand that the water flowing in front of our house passed through the Black Sea, Istanbul, the Aegean, the Mediterranean and flowed into the Atlantic Ocean. Ours was west of Kizildag. The water coming from a source to the east flowed into the Indian Ocean, maybe the Euphrates smelled of spices.

The source originates from the Aydin Village of the Imranli district of Sivas. (It is one of these sources. It would be more accurate to say the western slopes of Kizildag.) It flows between the Fener and Kosu neighborhoods of the Bafra district and flows into the sea.

Source coordinates: 39.85043 38.40984 Orifice coordinates: 41.73648 35.95574

It originates from 2160 meters and flows for 1350 km to descend to sea level.

In this section, we are giving some information we got from Wikipedia:

The Kizilirmak (Turkish pronunciation: [kizilirmak], Turkish for "Red River"), once known as the Halys River (Ancient Greek) and Alis River, is the longest river flowing entirely within Turkey. It is a source of hydroelectric power and is not used for navigation.

Geography The Kizilirmak flows for a total of 1,355 kilometres (842 mi),[2] rising in Eastern Anatolia around 39.8°N 38.3°E, flowing first to the west and southwest until 38.7°N 34.8°E, then forming a wide arch, the "Halys bend", flowing first to the west, then to the northwest, passing to the northeast of Lake Tuz (Tuz Gölü in Turkish), then to the north and northeast, where it is joined by its major tributary, the Delice River (once known in Greek as the Cappadox river) at 40.47°N 34.14°E. After zigzagging to the northwest to the confluence with the Devrez River at 41.10°N 34.42°E, and back to the northeast, it joins the Gökirmak (Sky River in Turkish) before finally flowing via a wide delta into the Black Sea northwest of Samsun at 41.72°N 35.95°E.

Delta This section is an excerpt from Kizilirmak Delta.[edit] The delta of the Kizilirmak River in Turkey's Black Sea region is the third largest in the country.[3] Formed where the river flows into the Black Sea the delta has the biggest wetland in the region, with many lagoons.[4] The wetland is a key biodiversity area and one of several internationally important Ramsar sites in Turkey because of its rich bird and plant life.[5] The delta's bird reserve is important for migration.

The town of Bafra has been built on the delta and the coastal city of Samsun is nearby.[7] The land is very fertile, and more than half is farmed,[7] with the two older plains and most of the newer plain dominated by agriculture.[8]

The ecology of the delta faces some threats. Seawater is intruding as water is pumped from fields, making part of the delta saltier. The coastline is receding because sediment is caught in upstream dams; this is forecast to continue. Additionally, sea level is rising due to climate change.[9] There is a management plan through 2034, but it is not publicly available as of May 2025. History The Hittites called the river the Maraššantiya, and it formed the western boundary of Hatti, the core land of the Hittite empire.[citation needed] Until the Roman conquest of Anatolia the Halys River (later renamed the Kizilirmak by the Turkish conquerors) served as a natural political boundary in central Asia Minor, first between the kingdom of Lydia and the Persian Empire, and later between the Pontic Kingdom and the Kingdom of Cappadocia. As the site of the Battle of Halys, or the Battle of the Eclipse, on May 28, 585 BC,[11] the river formed the border between Lydia to the west and Media to the east until Croesus of Lydia crossed it to attack Cyrus the Great in 547 BC. He was defeated and Persia expanded to the Aegean Sea.

In the 1st century AD Vespasian combined several provinces, including Cappadocia, to create one large province with its eastern boundary marked by the Euphrates River. This province once again splintered during Trajan's reign - the newly created province of Cappadocia, bounded by the Euphrates to the East, included Pontus and Lesser Armenia. The Halys River became an interior river and never regained its significance as a political border. In the 130s a governor of Cappadocia wrote: "long ago the Halys River was the boundary between the kingdom of Croesus and the Persian Empire; now it flows under Roman dominion."

Dams and agriculture The river's water is used to grow rice and in a few areas water buffalo are kept. There are dams on the river at Boyabat, Altinkaya and Derbent. Dams have reduced the flow of sediment to the delta, allowing coastal erosion.