Uludağ

How many names is a mountain called by in its lifetime? If we put this question to Uludağ, I suspect it would have to think for quite a while before answering… In antiquity the Mysians called it Olympos; like that famous peak where the gods dwelt, they held this highest mountain of the Marmara to be the place closest to heaven. In Byzantine times, when its slopes filled with the monasteries of monks who had renounced the world, the Ottomans saw fit to call it Keşiş Dağı, the Monk’s Mountain. And at last, in the early years of the Republic, it took the name we all know today: Uludağ…