[1] The town is at the location where Kızıl River joins its tributary the Gök just before crossing the last mountain range northwards to the Black Sea.

Rice farming in the fertile river valley has been the engine of economical activity of the town.

The name of the town is an altered version of the name of a building from 13th century for overnight stay of caravans, Durak Han, literally "station house" in Turkish.

Durağan has a past reaching into the antiquity being the nearest town to possibly world's oldest underwater tunnel, terelek kaya tuneli,[3] a few kilometers downstream on the Kızıl River, now the upper part of a dam lake.

Durağan has also a cave, Buzluk Mağarası, that naturally produces ice during summer time, near the villages of Bayatsekisi and Sarnıkalıncası, about 13 km from town.