VALOVA

Evening Star, Issue 21581, 29 November 1933, Page 12

VALOVA

THE GHAZI'S ANATOLIAN SPA Three years ago the Ghazi took a trip in Ids yacht up the Gulf of Ismidt and landed on the Anatolian coast some twenty-seven miles from Constantinople. He pushed sonic four miles inland and canio to a cluster of afforested foothills, beneath which, overgrown and entangled in wild brushwood, were some strangc-looking buildings. One of them dated from Byzantine times, ft was an object of art. ft had a graceful array of domes and serai-domes carried by walls several yards thick, through whose splayed windows the light fell on a large empty basin. It might have been a baptistry, except for plaques of basrelief rudely representing Hercules and the Three Graces. It was, in fact, a bath to make one as strong as the former and as elegant as the latter. Whether Constantine the Great and .histinian had actully used it is uncertain, but it is known that it was those emperors who first built baths upon this site and put to profit the curative value of the hot springs which rise up in the valley. Ghazi Kcmal Pasha decided that the modern Turkey should have a modern spa. The days were past when it was supposed that there was no medical science among the Turks, and now that there were doctors and surgeons and specialists of repute capable of holding their own with the generality of European doctors it was time to develop a properly equipped cure station in the country. This would be, as it were, a sign and proof of medical maturity. It would, besides, do away witli the habit of the richer Turks of taking their periodical cures in Europe, in Czechoslovak, and other spas. No modern country could do without an attractive cure station, and Turkey is so rich, in mineral springs and well-waters that not to exploit them was a sort of State failure. Therefore he ordered a spa to be created and the Byzantine experiment to be made a fact for to-day. LIKE A PALACE PARK, It was in this way that Yalova, the now frequented spa of Turkey, came to he made. There is no prettier or better, arranged spot in the country, except possibly the capital, Angora, which is. of course, of an entirely different type. Among foothills three or four hundred feet in height and completely covered with the richest afforestation of oak and elm and acacia, piano and sycamore and holm-oak, an area four kilometres long and one and a-half broad has been barricaded oft against the raids of the winter wild boars. Huge electric flares at the barriers keep away these destructive animals, and armed guards watch in defence all night. Within this precinct all is parklike. The Ghazi has ids largo-bnl-conicd kiosk, the Governor of Constantinople his villa. Everywhere winding gravelled paths, perfectly kept, have been pierced; parks have boon laid out, and the floral art, in which the Turks excel, lias been deployed with all their skill. Tumbling illuminated cascades diversify and freshen the scene,

and leaf-entwined arbours invite to repose. The creation and organisation of the spa were entrusted to the State maritime company which ensures the service between Constantinople and this coast. It was completed, with the modern Turkish celerity under the Ghazi’s influence, in six months. Afterwards came the embellishment, which still goes on, and the driving of a splendid asphalted road the four or five miles to the landing stage. Swift motor buses ply to and fro, and the police are there to watch that they do not overspecd. As Yalova is the Ghazi’s favourite summer resort from Constantinople, it is natural that the spa should bo kept specially spick and span, so that one feels it practically like a palace park. THE SPRINGS AND TREATMENT. Four hot springs have been harnessed, and there remain seven more large ones and five small to use. They come up at a heat of just over 60dcg centigrade, uncoloured, only slightly sulphurous, mineralised, and possessing great radioactivity. It is this last quality which gives their main curative quality, especially for rheumatism—Constantine the Great suffered from tin’s unmodern complaint, and for this reason first created the spa—and for allied maladies. There are open and public baths for mixed use, one so ancient and rustic that it is as black as night, one a great swimming pool. There are twentyone private baths, marbled and stepped so that any kind of bath, including sit baths, can be taken. There are inhaling rooms for asthma, water-massage rooms, and other modern therapeutic devices. The medical side is in the control of Turkish doctors attached to the spa. Naturally there is not, as in European spas, a colony of private doctors on the spot, professing the business of the cure, but Istanbul is near enough to provide patients with extra advice. Shortly it is believed that the National Assembly is to vote the grant of land free to persons who wish to construct villas at the spa—even, it is said, to foreigners. At present there are four chalet hotels, which are filled to capacity in the May-to-September season. _ Another largo hotel is to be built with baths on the promises and with central heating, so that Yalova may be open all the year round. The first creation of flic spa cost £TQI,000,000, or £IOO,OOO, under a credit granted by the assembly, and every year there is a special credit in the budget of Hie State maritime service for upkeep and improvement. It is here that Ministers and depu- 1 ties congregate in the summer. The

Ghazi himself strolls about the spa with his suite and sits in the cafes and hotels, sometimes calling t up to him the Turkish children and questioning them on the principles of modern Tuxkey. Wherever he goes ho is the object of respectful attentions and admiration. His thick-set, medium-sized figure, in open-collared shirt and holiday' garb, under the strong head with its surprisingly flaxen hair, thinning now a little at the back, keeps the people in mind of what they owe to him. In the open-air cafes the deputies and Ministers vie with one another at the dicing draughts, which are known as tric-trac. Meanwhile the baths do their curative work on 800 resident visitors a year. Every holiday and rest-day the scene fills up with a crowd of marvelling sightseers ' and occasional bathers from Istanbul, and the Turkish population gets to know the benefits and the beauty of the Ghazi’s spa. At present there is a loss of about £TQ2O,000 on the running, but every Turk would say that it was worth that and more.