Stretching for 65 miles (105 km) between the towns of Of and Bayburt in Eastern Turkey, the D915 is an extreme road regarded by many motorists as the most diffcult in the world.
For many years, Bolivia’s Yungas Road, aka the “Death Road”, held the unofficial title of world’s most dangerous road. Photos and videos of motorists navigating the gravel track winding its way through the Cordillera Oriental mountain range to an altitude of 4650 meters have made Yungas one of Bolivia’s most popular tourist attractions, drawing around 25,000 people every year. However, according to some adventurers, there is one less popular road that surpasses the Death Road in terms of difficulty. Linking Turkey’s Northeast Anatolia Province to the Black Sea, the D915 mountain road features a myriad turns and dangerous drop-offs that make it extremely perilous to traverse even for the most skilled drivers.
Photo: Reddit
The history of the Babyurt – Of (D915) road can be traced back to the Trebizond Campaign (1916 – 1918), which resulted in the capture of Trabzon by Russian forces. It is said that the road was built by Russian soldiers using only hand tools, and although certain parts at each end were paved with asphalt at some point, most of it still consists of loose gravel.
The D915 doesn’t look that extreme at first, but as you advance from either end, the asphalt is replaced by gravel and the road gets narrower and steeper. It features a total of 38 sharp hairpin turns, but the most infamous of them are the so-called Derebaşı Turns. There are 17 of them over a stretch of 3.2 miles (5.1 km), from an elevation of 1,712 m (5,617 ft) to 2,035 m (6,677 ft) above sea level, with gradients peaking at 17%.
There are no guardrails to keep vehicles from falling into the abyss below, and the steepest portions of the road are so narrow, that when two vehicles meet from opoosite sides, one of them has to back up to make room for the other. This is particularly dangerous in bad weather conditions like thick fog or rain, both of which are frequent, even during the summer. Because snow and ice would make D915 infinitely more dangerous to navigate, it usually remains closed between the months of October and late June/early July.
Some of the turns on D915 are so tight, larger vehicle struggle to navigate them in one maneuver, without another vehicle coming from the opposite direction, but this is a relatively busy road used by hundreds of locals on a daily basis. There are two other alternative roads between Of and Bayburt, but D915 is less of a detour, so it’s preferred, despite its dangers.
As it winds to the top of the mountain, D915 offers some incredible vistas, but because of its challenging nature, it cannot be recommended as a tourist attraction. A single wrong mneuver can end in tragedy, so only seasoned and skilled drivers, not tourists loking for an adrenaline rush, should venture on it.
