We woke up early in order to visit the local castle, which is one of the main tourist attractions. We crossed a part of the beautiful and picturesque marina which was full of beautiful small wooden boats that run short cruises in the region and particularly to Kos. The entrance of the impressive castle of St. Peter cost 20 TL / person.
The castle was built by the Order of the Knights of St. John. Its defensive architecture is great revealing its importance. Each conqueror gave his own name to each of the towers (eg Italian Tower, French Tower, German Tower, etc) they made. Both additions and modifications were made according to the requirements and needs of the prevailing circumstances in order to achieve the best fortification.
Apart from the stunning view that offers, it has several exhibits and information related to the underwater discoveries of the area, which were discovered recently. In particular, various parts of the castle (mainly towers) host objects from shipwrecks. Simultaneously videos that inform the way they were discovered and emerged from the water are projected. In some other places there are some reconstructions of shipwrecks.
Walking around for 2 hours, the time passed without understand it! Frankly, we thought that we walked too fast in order not to delay our already delayed departure. At 11:30 a.m. we returned to the hotel to pack our staff. The checkout should be done before 12. But we wanted to visit the Mausoleum before leaving.
The construction of Mausoleum was started by Mausolus, king of Caria, who failed to complete it during his lifetime. Its completion accomplished by his wife, Artemisia. The sarcophagus of the king was placed at the base of the structure. Its size was impressive and could be seen from a great distance. Unfortunately, an earthquake destroyed the impressive Mausoleum. Later, the area was used as a quarry for the needs of the construction of the St. Peter castle. That's when they found the burial chamber of King Mausolus. The findings in it were "disappeared"...
The current condition does not indicate its former glory. Paying a ticket 8TL/person, we got in an area -basically-without something impressive. Loose stones and some artifacts around-were-what left of the Mausoleum. Fortunately, there were a model that gave you a lot of informative picture of both the structure and size, and where was placed in relation to the port.
At 1pm, we took the road to Fethiye. We decided not to visit Marmaris, as it required a 60km detour and it was just another touristic resort. So we drove towards Yatagan - Mugla - Fethiye. The road was impressive, despite the fact that the quality of the road was not good. In some parts of there was work in progress. Apart from that, the landscape was unique! The largest part of the road traversed vast tracts of pine. The altitude did not exceed 780m. In some places you can enjoy the breathtaking panoramic view of the area!
After Mugla, the landscape still had more vegetation. On the left stood high mountains, giving a special beauty to the landscape! Passing the town of Koycegiz, we met the first sign for Dalyan, so we turned right to a narrow country road(...), passing through piney areas and small villages. Obviously, this route was one of the many that could reach this destination. Despite the fact that we needed more time, we had the opportunity to see a little more of the Turkish landscape.
In Dalyan we stopped at the entry of the village to find the direction that led to carved tombs, one of the attractions of the area. The Dalyan is also known for the turtles careta-careta, the mud baths and the archaeological site Kaunos. We were lucky as a local motorcyclist led us to the point that offers the best view of the graves. On the east riverside tombs were carved into rocks with beautiful facades (4th century BC) with Latin characters (due to have been used by the Romans). The village has a mild tourist development. We made stop for tea at one of the cafes in the area.
It was almost 5pm and we felt it was better to visit the Kayakoy (...) and then search for accommodation in Uludeniz (...). These two destinations are within small distance (10 km) from Fethiye. We continued in the same driving pattern until we arrived in Fethiye at 6pm. Some road works were delayed uw in town but eventually we found the road leading to Kayakoy (9km). An amazing journey through the pines, which included 1-2 small tourist resorts (well developed) until we reached the deserted Greek village.
The current name of the village is Kayakoy. This is the Greek village Karmylassos / Livisi abandoned by the population exchange in 1923. The rich village was built on the slopes of a large hill, while the small valley that lay before it, was used by the residents for crop cultivation. Nowadays, the 400 stone houses (roofless) remain to remind us of the old glory. It's really impressive!
We parked our motorcycles beside a picturesque tavern and began to head towards the village. The time was almost 7pm and the light that fell on the ruined houses gave a charming beauty in the space!We wandered for a while, having mixed emotions ... One of the most beautiful sights-and perhaps the best preserved building- was the church of Panagia Pirgiotisa, combining Byzantine, Gothic and Arabic elements.
We returned to out motorcycles. We did not want to leave that place. We felt that something kept us there... So we looked for accommodation in Muzzy's place hotel (double + single dbed price with breakfast: 100TL). The owner told us he was from Thessaloniki (we didn't believe it). We chose to eat at a traditional restaurant (Antik restaurant) although the prices were not as cheap.
What matters was that despite the fact that we were feeling that we were in another country we had an exploratory role. As we were leaving the tourist Aegean coast we were more into our journey...
