Turkey
Bafa Lake
A Byzantine monastery on a boulder-strewn island in a lake that was once an Aegean inlet.
Boulders as big as houses line the shore of Bafa Lake, and on an island just offshore a Byzantine monastery sits among them as though placed by a deliberate hand. The water is flat and warm, herons motionless in the shallows. Two thousand years ago this was open sea, the Aegean itself, lapping at a harbour wall.
Bafa was an inlet of the Aegean until the Meander River sealed it off with silt, stranding the port city of Herakleia under Latmos on its shore, where the defensive walls and agora are still traceable on foot. On the islands, remains of Byzantine monasteries and defences survive, reached by local boatmen on request. In the Latmos mountains above, prehistoric rock paintings up to 8,000 years old hide on cliff faces that a local guide can find. More than 200 bird species have been logged on the lake, including the rare Dalmatian pelican, and the lake still gives up mullet, bass and eel to the shore pansiyons.
Solo
Bafa rewards the curious and unhurried. Hire a local boatman to reach the monastery island, walk out to Herakleia's walls, and eat fried lake fish at a pansiyon where you may be the only guest.
Couple
The stillness is the point: a lake that was once the sea, a monastery on an island, birdlife that fills the early mornings. A place to slow down together that feels genuinely remote.
- Bafa was an inlet of the Aegean Sea until the Meander River's silt gradually sealed it off around 2,000 years ago.
- The walls of Hellenistic Herakleia stand on the shore; Byzantine monks later built island monasteries a boat-call away.
- Prehistoric rock paintings up to 8,000 years old survive on the Latmos cliff faces, found with a local guide.
- Over 200 bird species have been recorded at the lake, including the rare Dalmatian pelican.
Grey mullet, bass and eel from the lake, fried simply in olive oil at family-run shore pansiyons.
Muğla's zeytinyağlı meze, vegetables braised in olive oil and served cold under the vines.
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