Kümbet Plateau, Giresun

Overview

In July, families from the Giresun coast drive up into the forest, and the meadows of Kümbet Plateau fill with tents, music and smoke from the grills. For the rest of the summer, the plateau returns to grass, fir trees and cold spring water. With a guide, join our Giresun and Şebinkarahisar tour.

The Story of Kümbet Plateau

Kümbet lies in Dereli district, about 60 km from Giresun. It was declared a tourism centre in 1991. Its grassy clearings sit inside the forest, with clear water sources all around. Like the other Black Sea plateaus, it is a summer pasture, so the highland houses come alive between late spring and early autumn.

The July Festival

The International Kümbet Culture and Arts Festival takes place at Aymaç on the plateau in the third week of July. In the same weeks, other festivals are held at Sağrak Lake and on the Bektaş plateau. So if you want to see the highlands at their liveliest, plan your trip for July.

More Giresun Plateaus

However, Kümbet is only one of several summer pastures in the Giresun highlands. Also in Dereli district, the Bektaş plateau lies about 56 km (35 miles) from Giresun. To the east, the Sis Dağı plateau spreads over Ali Meydan, or Sis, Mountain at 2,182 m (7,159 feet), about 40 km (25 miles) inland from the coast at Görele. There, snow stays on the ground until early July, yellow and purple flowers cover the slopes, and festivals fill the plateau in July. Sis Dağı then became a tourism center in 2011, twenty years after Kümbet.

Also, two Giresun dishes suit a cool highland day. Ayranlı çorba is a soup of wheat, chickpeas and beans with thick ayran and dill, and acı mantar yahnisi is a stew of a wild white mushroom with onion, potato and tomato, fried in butter and hazelnut oil.

How to Visit Kümbet Plateau

You reach the plateau on the Giresun–Dereli–Şebinkarahisar road. On the same route, stop at Kuzalan Waterfall and Mavi Göl, and continue to Şebinkarahisar Castle if you have a full day. Take a warm layer, because evenings are cool even in August. We plan your day on the Kümbet plateau above Giresun. Back on the coast, the rock castle of Bedrama stands inland from Tirebolu. With Ordu and the coast, see our Black Sea plateaus tour.

Would you like to see the Giresun highlands with someone who knows them? Our founder’s family lives in Giresun, so we plan the plateaus, the waterfalls and the castles with a local driver, and add a hazelnut harvest day in August. Come in July for the festival on Kümbet, on our Black Sea tour or a tailor-made trip; our Giresun guide has the other plateaus.