Where: 57 miles south of Constanta
on DN 22
The town of Babadag, known during the Roman rule as Vicus Novium, was first documented in 1263. Between 1262 and 1264 some 12,000 Turks, led by Sara Saltuk Baba, settled around Babadag at the request of Byzantine emperor Michael III. Between 1677 and 1678, the residence of Pasha of Silistra was established here to better observe the troop movements of the Russians, with whom Turkey was at war.
The name of the town comes from Baba (meaning father in Arabic) and Dagh (meaning mountain). Legend has it that a few centuries ago, here lived a shepherd called Korun Baba. One day, while leading his flock, he met some Turkish monks who asked him of Sari Saltuk's tomb. The shepherd answered that he knows nothing of this tomb, but that he noticed that on the mountain's peak, his sheep avoid a place covered with stones. The monks started digging that place, and at sunset found the bones of the saint. Then the monks raised the mausoleum that can still be seen standing today. Upon the shepherd's death, the locals buried him close to the Muslim saint. Legend also has it that the very place where the shepherd rested, the earth split in two, in order to mark the tomb.
The Museum of Oriental Art in Babadag is worth paying a visit. Its collections feature wooden, ivory and mother-of-pearl artifacts, religious items, daggers, tea services, a splendid bridal gown sawn with gold thread, Turkish dolls, Siraz, Sirme , and Anatolia carpets, and Kashmir shawls said to have taken a quarter of century to make.Other places of interest here include the Ali-Gazi-Pasha Mosque, the oldest in Romania (1522), and the nearby Kalaigi water spring, in which the pilgrims from all over the Balkans come to bathe their feet. Visitors are also shown the ruined tomb of Ali-Gazi-Pasha, who long ago, was the terror of the region and possessed a harem of eight hundred captive women.