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The route

The route starts at Kusadasi, on Turkey’s Aegean (western) coast. It heads east through Konya, drops southeast to Adana near the Mediterranean Sea, then heads east again to Sanliurfa. From Sanliurfa the route continues east-northeast to Diyarbakir and Van..

I’ll be walking about 60 miles per week. At that rate, the journey will take about 22 weeks (almost six months) of walking, plus downtime in the “layover cities,” which I suspect will be Isparta, Konya, Adana, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, and Van.

Here’s a map:


View Heathen Pilgrim route in a larger map

If you really want to get granular, look at this spreadsheet, where I’ve broken down the route into increments averaging 7 miles each.

Here is the elevation profile (click the image to enlarge):


I start out in a river valley for a couple weeks. Then for about 6 weeks I’ll be on a plateau, spending most of that time between 3000 and 4000 feet. From the plateau I drop to sea level for three weeks or so, then back onto a lower plateau (about 2000 to 3000 feet) for about two months. From there I climb to a higher plateau, spending the last three weeks of the walk between 6000 and 7000 feet.

Climate (average highs and lows, precipitation):

Climate profile

I am writing up some narrative descriptions of the legs of the journey. The first ones are here…

Menderes river valley
Climbing onto the plateau — Denizli to Lake Egirdir
On the plateau — Lake Egirdir to Konya
Descending to the Mediterranean — Konya to Silifke

I’ll post more as I write them up.

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