The spring on Mount Arkut

The oldest known book of medicines written in Turkish, İshak bin Murad’s Edviye-i Müfrede, was finished in 1390 beside a spring on Mount Arkut, above Gerede castle. About 600 years later, on 9 May 1984, Turhan Baytop climbed the mountain with a pharmacist from Gerede. The spring was still flowing and had become a picnic spot; the mountain was covered in Scots pine and fir. Most plants in the book are still known locally by the same names.

Source: Turhan Baytop, Türkiye’de Bitkiler ile Tedavi: Geçmişte ve Bugün, 3. baskı (yay. haz. Feza Baytop Günergun), Nobel Tıp Kitabevleri, Ankara, 2021 (Baytop, Türkiye’de Bitkiler ile Tedavi, 2021). This is a folk record, not a treatment recommendation.