Disappearing in the Deep Blue Sea, Myth of Chimera and Santa Claus

During this September, I spent four days in the south of Turkey.

Muğla and Antalya provinces are so popular to pass a nice vacation especially at the beginning of the summer or autumn. In general, you can swim until the half of November (or also in Easter).

Our firt stop was Fethiye which is a city and district of Muğla. You can find so many attractions in Fethiye: Sea, sun, paragliding (but I think a little bit dangerous), jeep safari, canoe, canyons, tombs etc.

Fethiye is also the home of the Tomb of Amyntas which was built in 350BC by the Lycians. You find it at the top of the city. 

Ölüdeniz (official translation "Blue Lagoon", literally "Dead Sea") Beach is the one of the most popular beaches in Turkey. The sea is fantastic (it becomes deeper fast, but that's nice). You can choose the sand or the stone side according to your comfort.

You can also drive canoe or pedal boat (for 1hour ~ 7€). 

I advise to sacrifice minimum one day for Ölüdeniz.

To eat in Fethiye, there is a fish market in the center of the city. You choose your fresh fish and then the restaurants which are next to the market, will cook for you.

Our second stop was also in Fethiye, Saklıkent (Literally, "Hidden city") Canyon. It is far from the center, so you should rent a car or find a tour to go there.

The Canyon is 300 meters deep and 18 km long, one of the deepest in the world. Thanks to the low level of water, it is walkable after April. When go to visit it, don't forget to bring an ideal slipper for water. For example like this;

Image from denizdukkani.com

The beginning and the end of the canyon is a little bit deep and cold, so be careful.

There also is a cascade at the end of the canyon.

Besides, after Saklıkent, you can go to Gizli Canyon which is only 1km far from Saklıkent. This is a new found canyon, so there is no so many people in there. It's very green, fresh and "hidden". :)

And there is another cascade too, with a little lake.

Our third stop was Kaş and Demre which are villages and district of Antalya.  

Kaş is the one of the closest point to Greek islands. There is Kastelorizo just in front of the city. With a boat, you can easily across the Greek islands from Kaş.

Also in Antalya, there are many attractive attractions like diving (in generally scuba diving is forbidden), safari, boat tours, cascades, the Church of Santa Claus etc.

Between Kaş and Demre, there is Kekova where you can experience a much interesting boat tour. 

Kekova is a small island near Demre. On the northern side of Kekova, there are the partly sunken ruins of an ancient town (from Dolkisthe's) which was destroyed by an earthquake during the 2nd century. It's very interesting to watch these ruins when you are in a boat.

With the boat, you can also go to some bay for swimming. The sea is so clean and even if the depth is more than 3 meters, you can see the basement of the sea.

After Kekova we passed to Demre which was the most important city of Lycians.

In Demre, there are two places that you have to visit; the Church of Santa Claus and the ruins of Demre/Myra.

So, after seeing the name of Santa Claus, maybe you can think that it is crazy to imagine Santa Claus in a hot, summer city in the south of Turkey! But sorry, it's the real story.

 

From Wikipedia : " Saint Nicholas of Myra is the primary inspiration for the Christian figure of Sinterklaas. He was a 4th century Greek Christian bishop of Myra (now Demre) in Lycia, a province of the Byzantine Anatolia, now in Turkey".

The ruins of Myra are not big, but I found them interesting.

We passed our third stop's night at Adrasan which is a village in the district of Kumluca, Antalya province and which is situated in a little bay. The people there are very kind and we had a good time.

Our fourth and last stop was Olympus which is an ancient Hellenistic city located in a valley. Archeologists think that the name of the city comes from the closest mountain, Olympus (now, in Turkish "Tahtalı Dağı"). There are also so many other mountains (almost twenty mountains) in Greece and Turkey which called Olympus.

At the end of your visit, you can swim!

Olympus is in a National Park and this area offers so many things like trekking, mountain biking, canoe, rock climbing etc.

Additionally, don't forget to visit the natural spontaneous flames of Çıralı. According to the myth, the "fires of Chimera" come from the mythological character Chimera who was a monster with a lion's head, a goat's body and s serpent's tail. So even if Bellerophon buried her, also today we can see her breath came out like a burning flame.

Well, this is the end of my blog article. You can check the Google Maps images that I share to see where were we.

TIPS: For example, from abroad or Istanbul, you can come to Antalya (Olympus side) or Dalaman (Fethiye side) airports.

Have a nice trip!