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Municipality in Turkey
Photo: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Uşak is a city in the Central Aegean region of Turkey, with a population in 2022 of 236,366. It has a historic quarter, but the main drawcards are its museum featuring the Lydian treasures, and the canyons and antiquities in the surrounding countryside.
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Extensive museum over three floors. The lower floor is from the Paleolithic to the Roman era, and the intermediate floor exhibits trade in Ottoman Uşak. The top floor is the standout, describing the Lydians, the local pre-Roman kingdom. The Lydian or Karun treasure is the stuff of movies: in 1966, tomb robbers found the burial chamber of a Lydian princess. They smuggled the goods abroad and some found their way to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art; the treasures were repatriated in 1993 after a long legal battle. Sceptics doubted that Uşak was a suitable place for their return, and in 2007 it was discovered that some exhibits had been replaced by fakes: the museum director was jailed.
Merchant's house used as Turkish military headquarters in 1920-22 when the battlefront with Greece was nearby, and where Atatürk received the surrender of General Nikolaos Trikoupis. You'll be lucky to find it open.
Uşak Halı Kilim Müzesi
Display of locally-made carpets.
City history into modern times.
Chain outlet for döner wraps.
Fast food chain serving Donas, a sticky and hearty döner wrap.
This is the place for late night soups: lentil, chicken or offal, served with toasted bread and a tray of greens. Çorba means soup and the military rank of çorbacı, equivalent to colonel, means the fellow in charge of soup; it's become a slang word for "boss".
Late spot with live music on Saturday nights.
Central and usually clean, has parking.
Smart clean friendly hotel.
Ranged around the courtyard of a converted han, this could be really charming, but just feels musty and old.
Clean central hotel with parking.
Clean but basic place, by D300 main highway so it's convenient for motorists, but street noise can be a problem.
By train
A regional train leaves Izmir Basmane around 07:30 and 15:00 and takes six hours via Manisa, Turgutlu and Alaşehir. The westward return leaves at 06:20 and 18:30.
By bus
Kamil Koç (now part of Flixbus) runs every 30 min from Izmir, taking 3 hr 30 min via Turgutlu, Salihli (for Sardis) and Kula.
By road
Uşak is on D300/E96, the main highway east from Izmir into Anatolia. From Istanbul (470 km) follow O-5 over the Osmangazi Bridge to Bursa to take D200/E90 east to Bozüyük.
The centre is flat and compact, so is walkable. A fleet of public minibuses run to the suburbs, but you are unlikely to use them.
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Altıntaş · Regional · KZR
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