Çerkezköy is a city in Eastern Thrace.
Çerkezköy started its life as a village for the Circassian refugees from Caucasia in the 19th century (hence the name Çerkez-köy, which literally means "Circassian village"); prior to that, the area was known as Türbedere ("tomb rivulet"), due to the tomb of an ascetic dervish of the Bektashi Order, who lived his years near a local stream. The town was fully burnt down by the Bulgarian army in 1913, during the Balkan Wars, which may explain the absence of any historic monuments. The population of today's Çerkezköy, numbering about 100,000, is a mix of typical Thracian locals who are mostly descendants of the Balkan emigrants who settled in the area in the late 1800s/early 1900s and much more recent immigrants from central and eastern Turkey.
Çerkezköy today is a rapidly growing city of drab apartment blocks, surrounded by a diverse range of industries. You will have a hard time for finding a reason to spend time more than absolutely necessary in this place.
In local slang, Çerkezköy is simply known as Çerkez, though without giving much thought to its original meaning.
Area code of Çerkezköy is (+90) 282.
- Saray — a smaller nearby town, but with much more of a local flavour. Also serves as a hub for the beautiful forests of the Istranca Mountains, as well as beaches and historic towns on the Black Sea coast.