Karabük, Black Sea Region, Türkiye

🇹🇷 Karabük is a town and the capital district of Karabük Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. The district covers an area of 760 km² (293 sq mi), and the town lies at an elevation of 354 m (1,161 ft).

Karabük was built in the 1930s as the seat of the iron and steel industry of Turkey. Thus it has one of the worst- if not the worst - air pollution in the country, with a hazardous Air Quality Index of 328. Karabük lies in a location near Filyos River formed by the merge of Araç and Soğanlı rivers.

Name There are no known records of the origin of its name; in Turkish kara means "black" or "land" and bük means "bush" or "blackberry bush" ("bramble"). So Karabük means "blackbush".

History Karabük is situated on an important trade route between Amasra on the coast and central Anatolia. The history of the city goes back to the early years of the Turkish Republic, when it was a small sub-village formed by 13 houses in the Öğlebeli village of Safranbolu. There was also a small train station on the Ankara–Zonguldak route. The town started to develop with the industrialization of the country. One of the first steel factories of the Republic was built here in 1939, after which it grew rapidly and incorporated Öğlebeli village as a quarter. Karabük became a municipality and then a township in the Safranbolu district in 1941. It became a district centre in 1953 and a provincial centre in 1995.

Hadrianapolis (now Eskipazar), is an ancient city from the Roman Empire of the 4th century, located about 30km (68km by road) from Karabük. There are many fountains, churches, and Roman baths. Although most of it is recently excavated, illegal excavations which have been going on for many years and have damaged Eskipazar's chances of becoming a major tourist attraction.

Economy Karabük has its own resources of dolomite and limestone, while coal and manganese is brought from Zonguldak and iron ore from Divriği. This allows a varied, yet basic industry in Karabük, including a coking plant, blast furnaces, a foundry and tube works. There are also chemical plants that produce sulfuric acid and phosphates. Nearby are the Zonguldak coal fields.

One of the major steel producers in Turkey, namely Kardemir (Karabük Iron and Steel Works), is located in Karabük.