Population: 3,800
Due north of Afyon and Gazlıgöl, the small town of İhsaniye makes a good starting point for exploring the Phrygian Valley if you don’t have your own transport as there are several taxis for hire here. You’ll usually find the drivers waiting near Cumhuiryet Meydanı and the big new Merkez Cami. If you have to wait for one to become available the Kardeşler Lokantası is the best of the very simple places to eat.
Transport info
There are buses every half-hour from Afyon‘s Köy Garaj (Local Bus Terminal) to İhsaniye; pick one up on Atatürk Bulvarı rather than going all the way out to the terminal. Expect a gap in the schedule around mid-day prayer time on Fridays.
A taxi will be able to drive you to Doğer to admire the outside of the caravanserai, then onto the nearby Aslankaya (Lion Rock) and Emre Gölü (Lake Emre). Then you will be able to travel via the villages of Bayramlılar and Demirli, with their rock “castles (kales)”, to the Göynüş Vadisi which has several more interesting rock carvings to see. Then you can be dropped off in Kayıhan or Gazlıgöl to get a minibus back to Afyon. Services from Gazlıgöl are probably more frequent but Kayıhan is a slightly more picturesque place to wait for transport.
