The only road with 38 dangerous hairpin bends in the world

For years, Bolivia’s Yungas Road, also known as the “Road of Death,” has been considered the most dangerous road in the world. Photos and videos of drivers navigating the winding gravel road through the Cordillera Oriental mountain range to an altitude of 4,650 meters have made Yungas one of Bolivia’s most popular tourist attractions, drawing about 25,000 people each year.

However, according to some explorers, there is a less popular route than the Yungas that is just as difficult and dangerous. Connecting Türkiye’s northeastern Anatolia province to the Black Sea, the D915 mountain road has countless sharp turns and dangerous slopes that make it extremely dangerous to drive, even for the most skilled drivers.

The history of the Babyburt-Of Road (D915) is said to have begun during the Trebizond Campaign (1916–1918), which led to the Russian capture of Trabzon. It is said that the road was built by Russian soldiers using only hand tools. And although there are paved sections at each end, the majority of the road is still loose gravel.

The D915 initially doesn’t seem particularly special or dangerous until the section where the asphalt is replaced by gravel and the road gets narrower and steeper. The road has a total of 38 hairpin bends, but the most famous of these is the Derebaşı Loop. The 17 of them stretch for 5.1km, from 1,712m to 2,035m above sea level, with gradients reaching as high as 17%.

There are no guardrails to prevent cars from falling into the abyss below, and the steepest part of the road is very narrow, so when two cars meet from opposite directions, one has to back up to make room for the other. This is especially dangerous in bad weather conditions such as heavy fog or rain, both of which occur frequently here, even in summer. Because snow and ice make driving on the D915 much more dangerous, it is usually closed from October to late June or early July of the following year.

Some of the turns on the D915 are so narrow that larger vehicles have to try to get through at once without any traffic coming from the opposite direction. This is difficult as the road is relatively busy and used by hundreds of locals every day.

When you follow the D915 route to the top of the mountain, you will witness an incredibly majestic scene. However, due to the challenging journey up here, local authorities do not recommend visitors to experience this destination.

"No words or pictures can convey the danger of this road," declared dangerousroads.org.