Explore The Turquoise Coast
DALYAN13km off Highway 400, is a good base for the surrounding attractions: the ancient site of Kaunos across the river, İztuzu beach at the river mouth, the beautiful freshwater lake of Köyceğiz with its shoreline hot springs, and the remote bay of Ekincik.
Dalyan first achieved international prominence in 1986, when a major controversy erupted over a proposed luxury hotel on nearby İztuzu beach, a hatching ground for loggerhead turtles. Conservationists succeeded in halting the scheme, and now the beach is statutorily protected between May and October, when eggs are laid. In the wake of this campaign, the town hoped to syle itself as ecologically correct, but its mess of identikit eateries, trinket shops, t-shirt vendors and loud bars has proved little different from other mainstream resorts. You’ll notice the turtle motif everywhere from the turtle statue in the main square to restaurants and pansiyons being named after the creatures. Second-home sales have burgeoned locally, and the town centre is now crammed with estate agents, DIY shops and a large Migros supermarket.
Otherwise life in Dalyan revolves around the Dalyan Çayı, flowing past the village between Köyceğiz lake and the sea. Many choice pansiyons line the river’s east bank, and the boats that putt-putt up and down it are the preferred means of transport to the major local sites. Craft heading downstream pass a series of spectacular fourth-century BC “temple” tombs in the west-bank cliffs. Landlubbers can contemplate these tombs over a tea or ice cream at the Kral Bahçesi parkland just opposite, looking out too for hedgehogs in the riverside grass, less heralded than turtles but more easily spotted.
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Kaunos
Kaunos
Excavations at ancient Kaunos began in 1967 and still take place each summer under the aegis of Başkent University. While the ruins are far from spectacular, they’re well labelled with CGI reconstructions, and the site is one of the more underrated minor attractions on this coast, alive with herons and storks in summer, flamingos in winter, plus terrapins, tortoises, snakes and lizards in all seasons.
Much of Kaunos is yet to be unearthed, despite the long-running excavations. North of the city extend well-preserved stretches of defensive wall, some constructed by Mausolus early in the fourth century BC. Just below the acropolis with its medieval and Hellenistic fortified area, the second-century BC theatre is the most impressive building here. Resting against the hillside to the southeast, in the Greek fashion it’s greater than a semicircle and retains two of its original arched entrances; in 2008 a nymphaeum was uncovered next to one archway. Between here and the Byzantine church, a temple to Apollo has been identified.
Northwest of the theatre and Apollo temple, closer to the upper ticket booth, the Byzantine basilica and the city’s Roman baths are also in excellent condition. A cobble-paved street leads downhill from the baths to an ancient Doric temple, consisting most obviously of an attractive circular structure, possibly an altar, sacred pool or podium, flanked by bits of re-erected colonnade. A path continues to the agora, on the lowest level, graced by a restored fountain-house at the end of a long stoa. The ancient harbour below is now the Sülüklü Gölü, or “Lake of the Leeches”; the entrance could be barred by a chain in times of danger.
Some history
Although Kaunos was a ninth-century BC Carian foundation, it exhibited Lycian cultural traits, not least the compulsion to adorn nearby cliffs with rock tombs. Kaunos was also closely allied to the principal Lycian city of Xanthos, and when the Persian Harpagos attempted to conquer the region in the sixth century BC, these two cities were the only ones to resist. Kaunos began to acquire a Greek character under the Hellenizing Carian ruler Mausolus. Subsequently, the city passed to the Ptolemies; then to the Rhodians; and finally, after fierce resistance to Rhodes, under indirect Roman imperial administration.
Besides its fish, Kaunos was noted for its figs, and the prevalence of malaria among its inhabitants; excessive fig consumption was erroneously deemed the cause, rather than the anopheles mosquitoes which, until 1948, infested the surrounding swamps. Another insidious problem was the silting up of its harbour, which continually threatened the city’s commerce. The Mediterranean originally came right up to the foot of the acropolis hill, surrounding Kaunos on all sides apart from an isthmus of land to the north. But the Dalyan Çayı has since deposited over 5km of silt, leaving an expanse of marshy delta in its wake.
