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Menteşe Beşpınar
Oiled Wrestling Festival
You will experience a tradition that carries traces of centuries while watching the wrestlers who
preludes in “Menteşe Beşpınar Oiled Wrestling Festival”, also known as Kırkpınar (a famous oiled
wrestling festival in Turkey) of Aegean Region.
Organized in every summer for almost a quarter of centu- The wrestlers, who appear on the Square of Bravery with
ry, “Menteşe Beşpınar Oiled Wrestling Festival” is carried prayers and poems of the announcer, greet their opponents
out with the participation of hundreds of wrestlers. Many with rhythmical and majestic touches to his oiled canvas
local and foreign visitors participate in these oil wrestling tights. These movements, which the wrestlers used to
competitions that fulfil an important mission in terms of prepare themselves for wrestling, are called peshrev (pre-
sustaining an ancestral sport and transferring it to future lude). Afterwards, wrestling fans watch enthusiastic con-
generations. tests with excitement.
A Journey to Muğla 117
