Located on an important crossing of the Kızılırmak River on the ancient Silk Road to the Orient, Osmancık has long had strategic value and is still today a popular stopping place on the road from Istanbul to the Black Sea city of Samsun and further east.
Today, Osmancık is known for its rice production, being especially suitable for a new strain of rice developed specifically for the region by the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and named "Osmancık-97."
The North Anatolian Fault zone runs through the valley, making Osmancık highly vulnerable to earthquakes.
The town consists of 18 quarters: Gemici, Güney, Kızılırmak, Ulucami, Yazı, Yeni, Yeşilçatma, Şenyurt, Gürleyik, Temençe, Karapınar, Çiftlikler, Cumhuriyet, Çay, Esentepe, Eymir, Hıdırlık, and Koyunbaba.[3]
The area was settled by the Kayı clan of the Oghuz Turks as they migrated westward into Anatolia from their heartland of Central Asia. Osmancık was one of the important destinations in the Ottoman period. Because of several earthquakes, the city could not preserve its ancient architecture. In the last century, there have been four or five major earthquakes. Being on the path of the Kızılırmak River made the city an important settlement point since early history. Osmancık was known as Pimolisa during the Roman and Byzantine eras. From 1867 until 1922, Osmancık was part of the Angora vilayet.
