Turkey
Camili Valley
Turkey's first UNESCO biosphere reserve, where Georgian churches hide in forests no road reaches.
The forest closes in so completely that the Georgian churches appear without warning — stone domes pushing through canopy, moss climbing their walls, no sign or ticket booth in sight. Camili Valley in Turkey's Black Sea northeast is the kind of place where the trail disappears, the phone signal dies, and the only sounds are river water and birdsong.
Camili was designated Turkey's first UNESCO biosphere reserve in 2005, protecting one of the last intact temperate rainforests in the Caucasus. The valley sits in Artvin province near the Georgian border, home to a scattering of Laz and Georgian communities who have farmed these slopes for centuries. Three medieval Georgian churches — Tbeti, Dolishane, and Porta — survive deep in the forest, built between the 10th and 13th centuries when the Bagratid kingdom extended into what is now northeastern Turkey. Access is by unpaved road and on foot, keeping visitor numbers negligible. The valley's beekeepers produce some of Turkey's most prized honey — dark, resinous, and harvested from Caucasian bee colonies that have adapted to the altitude.
Solo
True wilderness solitude with a purpose — tracking down forgotten Georgian churches through old-growth forest. This is raw, unpackaged exploration for travellers comfortable with minimal infrastructure.
Couple
Share the quiet thrill of discovering medieval churches where no tour bus has ever reached. Evenings in farmhouse pensions, eating kuymak by wood fire, are as remote and romantic as Turkey gets.
Friends
A multi-day hiking trip through a UNESCO biosphere, church-hunting in trackless forest, with dark Caucasian honey and wood-fire cooking each evening. Bring friends who prefer trails to beaches.
- The Macahel Biosphere Reserve covers 22,000 hectares of Colchic forest — a biodiversity hotspot with ecology more Caucasian than Anatolian.
- Three medieval Georgian churches are scattered through the valley, reachable only on foot or by 4WD on unpaved forest tracks.
- The area borders Georgia; the local culture, dialect, and architecture have more in common with the southern Caucasus than with central Turkey.
- Wild honey produced from mountain flowers commands premium prices in Istanbul — locals sell it directly from farmhouse doors.
Artvin's kuymak — molten cheese and cornmeal stirred in a copper pan over wood fire.
Wild honey from Caucasian bees, dark and resinous, sold at farmhouse doors.
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