Turkey: Kas & The Turquoise Coast, Pamukkale and Ephesus

Just as I was getting used to the 9 hour time difference and scorching temperatures of Turkey, our two weeks there were over. Another 24 hours in transit had us stumbling through Auckland airport at 1am and out into the chilly 10° night air, having difficulty believing that just the night before we had been walking over the Galata bridge in Istanbul, watching the crowds go by during the final celebratory weekend of Ramadan. There will be a more in depth post on where to eat and the best sights to see in a whirlwind weekend in Istanbul coming in the next week or so, but today is simply a photo diary of our time on the south-west coast of Turkey, interspersed with a few tips and recommendations.

The Turquoise Coast encompasses a whole range of towns, from tiny sleepy villages only accessible by boat to large resort towns filled to the brim with tourists, all backed by a huge mountain range and surrounded by the clearest blue water I have ever seen. The area has been inhabited for thousands of years, and remarkably well preserved remnants of ancient Lycian cities lie all along the coast, with huge theatres, columns, and histories of warfare and trade. It was a misconception of mine that all Greek and Roman ruins were in Greek and Rome: in fact, a large proportion are in Turkey, which has been at a crossroads of Greek and Roman territories for thousands of years.

The above photos were taken on a boat trip around the coast of Kas, in the Kekova region. It becomes immediately clear why this section of the Mediterranean has been nick-named the Turquoise Coast: with warm and extra-floaty water (with more salt than the water around New Zealand and Australia) clear enough to spot the turtles swimming around 10 metres below, you could stay in all day. Crumbling stone walls and a lone flight of stairs descending into the water were the only remains of some of the Lycian cities that formerly occupied the steep slopes, now partially sunken into the water, while off in the distance you can spot the Greek Islands.

Eating in Kas: 

• Eat lokma in the evening from stands on the sidewalk – these small doughnut balls soaked in honey and dusted with cinnamon are a must-try.
• Bi Lokma (Mama’s Kitchen): a top spot to watch the sunset over the harbour and dig into meze plates and homemade manti: a dish of tiny mince-filled pasta dumplings covered in a tangy yogurt sauce.
• Naturel: authentic and reasonably Turkish cuisine from the region, with very friendly staff.

Regarding the question of whether or not to visit Pamukkale, a place alternatively slammed as an overcrowded, overhyped tourist trap and extolled as a must-see natural wonder of the world: I couldn’t say. On one hand, you do have to drive about three hours to get there from other surrounding towns, in the middle of the day it is absolutely packed, and yes, from a distance it does just look a little like a dirty glacier or a melting ski-field – but swimming in the thermal water of cotton castle terraces that have been used since 200BC is something you can’t do anywhere else in the world. If you go, make sure to only go in the evening when the huge tour buses have left for the day, giving you a bit more space, the sun is less blinding on the white rock and the heat not so relentless. Before you visit the pools to cool off, take the time to explore Hierapolis, the ancient city just above the terraces which was the location of St Philip the Apostle’s martyrdom.

Slightly further north on the Aegean Sea are the most famous of the ruins: Ephesus and Troy. Built in the 1000 BC, Ephesus is an ancient Greek city which was occupied until around 1200AD – a time span and history it is difficult to wrap your head around. By being the world’s largest and best preserved ruins, you do just have to accept that you will be to sharing it with many other people – but by going there early or late you can avoid being jostled. Troy, on the other hand, although very well known in popular culture, is barely more than a few stone walls sticking out of grass and bush, so don’t go expecting what you have seen in the movie. However, reading a bit of background of Homer’s Iliad (covering the Trojan War) can go a long way to imaging what might have gone on a few thousand years ago.

General tips:

• Go to the ancient ruins in the late afternoon as the big tour buses are leaving and the day is cooling off – in the middle of the day, especially in summer, it can be exhaustingly hot with little shade available and absolutely packed with tourists. This goes for Pamukkale as well.
• Ruins on ruins on ruins can get a little repetitive, but reading a bit of the history before arriving at each city can make it much more significant and you will actually know what you are looking at, rather than ‘just another theatre’.
• Try gozleme (a very thin bread dough folded around filing) cooked from a roadside restaurant in front of you.
• Get out of the big, established tourist resorts like Fethiye and Antalya and into the smaller towns with more authenticity and  charm.
• Spend a day on a boat, pretending you are a wealthy superyacht owner, sunning on the top deck and touring around the Mediterranean (I wish!). We visited Kale Köyü, a tiny village situated beneath the ancient castle of Simena and part of the Kekova region with the ruins of Lycian cities built on the steep coastline partially sunken into the water.