Kemer - Turkey

KEMER TURKEY



Kemer is a seaside resort and a district of Antalya Province on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, 40 km west of the city of Antalya.

Kemer is on the Gulf of Antalya, 53 km of sea coast with the skirts of the western Taurus mountains behind. The coast has the typical Mediterranean hot, dry weather and warm sea. Until the early 1980s this was a quiet rural district but today the town of Kemer and coastal villages in the district play a very important part in tourism in Turkey.
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History

Research shows only that Kemer was the Lycian town of Idryos.

Kemer was called Eski Köy (old village) until in 1916 - 1917, a 23 km long stone wall was built to channel the mountain stream water and protect the town from flooding, which until then had been a persistent problem. The name Kemer refers to those walls.

Until the 1960s there was no coast road and the district was accessible only by boat. Then a road was built and from the 1980s onwards this was followed by a great investment in infrastructure, planned by the state and funded by the World Bank, aimed at developing a large tourist trade.
Moonlight beach near Kemer


Tourism in Kemer

One of the major attractions of Kemer is its natural beauty; sea, mountains and pine forest combine in harmony. The shore from Beldibi to Tekirova consists of unspoilt beaches in bays of various sizes, mostly stoney rather than sand. With easy transportation, good communication and other municipal services Kemer has a large proportion of the hotel bed capacity of the Antalya region, and is a comfortable and peaceful holiday coast with internationally accepted reputation, attracting large numbers of visitors from countries such as Germany, The Netherlands and in recent years predominantly families from Russia. Many of the visitors come as part of low-cost all-inclusive package deals but tourism is still the mainstay of the local economy. There are so many vistors that most shops in Kemer are set up to sell things like leather jackets to overseas visitors and trade in the euro as well as the Turkish lira.

The town of Kemer is vibrant with clubs, bars and restaurants, blue flag beaches and a 320 capacity yacht marina. Popular coastal villages include Beldibi, Kiriş, Çayova, Aslanbucak, Kuzdere, Beycik, Çamyuva, Göynük, and Çıralı.

Annual events in the area include art exhibitions in Phaselis, boat races, rally driving, and Kemer Carnival. Stars of Turkish pop music, such as Tarkan, give summer concerts on this coast.

Places of interest

Sites of natural beauty

* Adrasan Bay - 2 kilometres of beach
* The Çıralı village and pristine 4 km beach. Popular for nature walks and sections of the Lycian Way
* Üç Adalar (Three Islands) - popular with divers
* The canyon of Göynük
* İkiz Kayalar (Twin rocks)
* The village of Ulupınar, with its mountain spring water.
* There are a number of interesting caves including Beldibi, and the Molla hole in the east face of Tahtalı mountain.

And of course the Taurus mountains offer many places for walking or a tour by jeep.

Historical sites

* Chimaera - the natural burning rock of Greek mythology.
* The ancient cities of Phaselis and Olympos
* The town of Kemer itself has some remains of antique Idryos, a Byzantine church and a Seljuk Turkish hunting lodge.

Twin towns

* Kemer is a twin town of Schwabach since 1998.

Antalya - Adalia / Turkey - wonderful city

(formerly known as Adalia; from Pamphylian Greek: Αττάλεια Attália) is a large town and tourist destination, situated on the Mediterranean coast of southwestern Turkey. It is the capital city of Antalya Province. The population of the city is 603,190 (2000 census) but reaches up to two million in summers at the height of tourism season.

Situated on a steep cliff over the Mediterranean, Antalya is a picturesque city surrounded by mountains. Developments in tourism, starting in the 1970s, have transformed the city into an international resort. With its airport and central location, Antalya is "the capital of Turkish tourism", a gateway for the Turkish riviera and many historical sites. Furthermore, with its palm-lined boulevards, its prize-winning marina, the unspoilt historical neighbourhood of Kaleiçi, and the modern developments along the coast, the city of Antalya is a major attraction in its own right. Antalya and its surroundings are a very important part of Turkish tourism.

Antalya city corresponds to the lands of ancient Pamphylia to the east and Lycia to the west. Antalya has plenty of accommodation, a very hot climate and many places to visit both in and around the city, including traces of Lycian,Pamphylian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman architecture and cultures.

Bodrum Castle - Turkey - Holiday

Bodrum Castle



Bodrum Castle (Bodrum Kalesi), located in southwest Turkey in the city of Bodrum, was built by the Knights Hospitaller starting in 1402 as the Castle of St. Peter.

Thomas Docwra was one time captain of the castle. In 1522 when faced by attack from Sultan Suleiman, the Grand Master of the Hospitallers ordered the Castle to be repaired. In desperation, the Hospitallers broke open the Mausoleum, finding all sorts of elaboratedly adorned marble blocks and carvings which they admired but nevertheless destroyed, using the debris as building material. They also discovered the sarcophagus of Mausolus, but this was stolen during the night. The Knights Hospitaller were soon defeated and driven from Bodrum. Some decorative slabs have been found in the ruins of the Castle, one slab has turned up in Genoa.

In 1846 Lord Stratford de Redeliffe, the British Ambassador to Constantinople obtained permission to take twelve slabs showing a combat between Greeks and Amazons. Charles Newton conducted excavations and removed a number of stone lions in 1856. Presently, these are all to be found at the British Museum.

About Bodrum - Turkey - Bodrum History and Pictures

Halicarnassus, Turkish: Halikarnas - from Greek Αλικαρνασσός-, and also, during the Middle Ages Petronium) is a Turkish port in Muğla Province. It is on the Bodrum Peninsula, near the northwest entrance to the Gulf of Gökova, and faces the Greek island of Kos. Today, it is a center of tourism and yachting. It is the ancient Halicarnassus of Caria, renowned for the mausoleum of Maussollos.

The town is very popular tourist resort for northern Europeans due to its attractive coastline and active night-life (Bodrum has been humorously referred to as the "Bedroom of Europe"). It can safely be said that every year at least a few hundred thousand tourists visit Bodrum. The current population is 32,227 (2000 census). In the town there is also a football team called Bodrumspor founded in 1931.


A fishing village until the early 1970s, Bodrum is built on the ruins of ancient Halicarnassus. It is now Turkey’s liveliest resort, attracting poets, singers, artists and package tourists. Its perfect harbour was colonized by ancient Greeks in the 11th century BC and the city later flourished under Persian rule. It was nominally the capital city of the satrapy of Caria; its location ensured the city enjoyed considerable autonomy.

It was here that the historian Herodotus (484–420 BC) was born, but Halicarnassus’s greatest glory was under Mausolus, who ruled on behalf of the Persians from 377 to 353 BC. When he died in 353 BC, his wife, Artemisia II of Caria, employed the ancient Greek architects Satyros and Pithios, and the four sculptors Bryaxis, Scopas, Leochares and Timotheus for to build a monument, a tomb to him. His tomb is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and was so well-known that it gave us the word “mausoleum”. Originally a temple-like structure decorated with reliefs and statuary on a massive base, only the foundations and a few pieces of sculpture now remain. After the brief tenure of the Knights of St John, who founded the Castle of St Peter in 1404, the city sank into obscurity. The castle and its town became known as Petronium, whence the modern name derives. Suleiman the Magnificent conquered Petronium for the Ottomans in 1522. Today, the sheltered anchorage is busy with luxury yachts and locally-built gulets used by seafaring holidaymakers.

Bodrum was the city of Halikarnassos in ancient times, an important port in the center of the old world, home to one of the wonders of the ancient world, the Mausoleum. Modern Bodrum is to Turkey, what Cannes is to the South of France.. It is everything and anything you want it to be, historic, interesting, relaxing, lively and within 10 minutes of unspoiled countryside.

An imposing Crusader Castle overlooks the harbor and the International Marina. When you have had enough of the many harbor-side bars, restaurants and historical sights, there is still a whole peninsula to explore. Mountains and green valleys, traditional villages and isolated beaches, all within view of the warm clear waters of the Aegean Sea.