Kekova

The boat drifts over glass-clear water and suddenly a staircase appears beneath the hull — stone steps descending into the sea, leading to doorways that open into nothing but turquoise. Lycian walls, amphora fragments, and the outlines of rooms shimmer two metres below the surface. The only sound is the creak of the wooden gulet and the slap of water against the submerged city.

Kekova is a sunken Lycian settlement on Turkey's southwestern Mediterranean coast, partially submerged by a 2nd-century earthquake. The ruins of Simena and Teimiussa lie both above and below the waterline along a sheltered strait between Kekova Island and the mainland. Swimming and diving within the protected archaeological zone are prohibited, but glass-bottomed boats and sea kayaks glide directly over the submerged walls, staircases, and harbour infrastructure. The strait is flanked by the car-free village of Kaleköy (ancient Simena), accessible only by boat, where a Byzantine castle overlooks a Lycian sarcophagus standing half-submerged in the shallows. The surrounding coast remains one of the least developed stretches of the Turkish Mediterranean.