Turkey
Kekova
A sunken Lycian city whose stone staircases and walls shimmer beneath glass-clear Mediterranean water.
The boat drifts over glass-clear water and suddenly a staircase appears beneath the hull, stone steps descending into the sea toward doorways that open into nothing but turquoise. Lycian walls and the outlines of rooms shimmer a couple of metres below the surface. All you hear 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 coast, dropped into the sea by a 2nd-century earthquake. The ruins of Simena and Teimiussa lie above and below the waterline along a sheltered strait between Kekova Island and the mainland. Swimming and diving over the protected archaeological zone are banned, so glass-bottomed boats and guided sea kayaks glide above the walls and staircases instead. The strait is watched over by car-free Kaleköy, ancient Simena, reached by boat or coastal footpath, where a Byzantine castle looks down on a Lycian sarcophagus standing half-submerged in the shallows. The surrounding coast remains among the emptiest stretches of the Turkish Mediterranean.
Couple
Kekova is Mediterranean Turkey at its most intimate: tiny waterside pensions, fish meze on a jetty, a sunken city visible from your sea kayak. The absence of roads creates a seclusion larger resorts cannot replicate.
Family
The glass-bottomed boat ride over sunken ruins is endlessly engaging for children; every shadow beneath the water prompts a new question. Kaleköy's castle climb rewards with a panoramic view.
- Swimming and diving over the sunken ruins are banned; glass-bottomed boats and guided sea kayaks glide above them instead.
- Traditional wooden gulets from Üçağız reach the sunken shoreline in about twenty minutes.
- The car-free village of Kaleköy, ancient Simena, sits above the ruins and is reached by boat or coastal footpath.
- Boat tours combine the sunken city, Simena castle, and a Lycian sarcophagus standing in the shallows.
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