Türkiye Jeoloji Bülteni

New Geomythosite Proposal from Türkiye

Abstract: Mythological narratives have played a significant role in shaping the lives and worldviews of societiesthroughout history. While many of these narratives originate from religious traditions, natural phenomena resultingfrom geological processes constitute another important source. In their attempts to explain extraordinary eventsin nature, communities often merged these occurrences with legends, thereby transforming them in to mythologicalaccounts. Some of these accounts serve as valuable references for contemporary research, particularly inunderstanding past catastrophic events such as volcanic eruptions, floods, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Mythologicalstories in which geology and legend are interwoven are defined as geomythology, whereas geosites with pronouncedgeomythological characteristics are referred to as geomythosites. When the cultural and historical wealth of asociety converges with the geological and geomorphological richness of its landscape, the influence of the earthsciences within its mythological traditions becomes inevitable. This study seeks to elaborate on the relationshipbetween geology and mythology by presenting ten geomythosites from different regions of Turkey, where culturalheritage and geological phenomena intersect.