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Sightseeing Near Kas
Sightsee
© Life in Kas, Turkey www.lifeinkas.com
Patara
Patara is known as the birthplace of St. Nicolas (Santa Claus), and also because of its long and empty sandy beach.St. Nicholas, was born in Patara in the 3rd century, and moved to Demre (Myra) where he became a bishop and did his many good works.
Patara village, 3.5 km (2.2 miles) south of the coastal highway, is well-suited to low-budget travellers with numerous little pensions and simple hotels charging very reasonable rates for double rooms.
Patara beach is 20 km (12 miles) long, 50 meters/yards wide, and never crowded, because the small village inland from the beach has only a few hundred tourist beds. The beach has soft sand and shallow sea. It is the one of the places that sea turtle leave their eggs. Because of this, the beach is under protection. The ruins of ancient Patara are just inland from the beach, and no big hotels can be built in an archaeological zone, so the beach should be protected from heavy development, with both an ecological and historical ban.
At its Eastern-most point there is a rocky outcrop looking over a spectacular rocky cove. If the beach has one drawback, it's that there are few trees and thus
Patara village, 3.5 km (2.2 miles) south of the coastal highway, is well-suited to low-budget travellers with numerous little pensions and simple hotels charging very reasonable rates for double rooms.
Patara beach is 20 km (12 miles) long, 50 meters/yards wide, and never crowded, because the small village inland from the beach has only a few hundred tourist beds. The beach has soft sand and shallow sea. It is the one of the places that sea turtle leave their eggs. Because of this, the beach is under protection. The ruins of ancient Patara are just inland from the beach, and no big hotels can be built in an archaeological zone, so the beach should be protected from heavy development, with both an ecological and historical ban.
At its Eastern-most point there is a rocky outcrop looking over a spectacular rocky cove. If the beach has one drawback, it's that there are few trees and thus
There are various tours which include a trip to visit Patara combined with somewhere else like Xanthos or Saklikent. You can get a Dolmuş (small bus) from Kas to the beach (about 45 minutes) and explore it yourself or drive.
Visitors' Experiences
“Our next stop of the day was Patara...this site combines ancient ruins with a beach all in one convenient location. The price at entry was only 2YTL ... a deal! As yet another bonus, some the ruins could be viewed from the car. It was really hot out so this was appreciated. As we drove into the town area and then down the dirt road through the ruins, we could see that a recent fire had decimated the surrounding forest. Some of the stone ruins had been burned too. It looked terrible. It appeared that they had successfully saved the homes though... we could see houses standing perfectly intact, surrounded by black and orange scorched trees.
We parked the car at the end of the dirt road and walked down a long boardwalk to the long white sand beach.
In the evenings, turtles lay eggs here. There were a good number of people there but it was by no means crowded (it's a huge beach). At first I was worried about the turtle eggs... it is a nesting beach. But then I saw a wire frame on the beach that marked (and protected) the location of a turtle nest. There must be people who watch for turtles to lay eggs, and then mark and date the spot. So that is good... no children will inadvertently dig up eggs as they build their sandcastles.
It was so hot and still, so we didn't spend much time there at the beach. We drove back to the picturesque theatre ruins. In order to view them properly we actually had to get out of the car and sweat a little. We explored the theater and a street with columns ... very nice. This was a good visit.
Back to the car and off to our next and final destination: Kas.”
We parked the car at the end of the dirt road and walked down a long boardwalk to the long white sand beach.
In the evenings, turtles lay eggs here. There were a good number of people there but it was by no means crowded (it's a huge beach). At first I was worried about the turtle eggs... it is a nesting beach. But then I saw a wire frame on the beach that marked (and protected) the location of a turtle nest. There must be people who watch for turtles to lay eggs, and then mark and date the spot. So that is good... no children will inadvertently dig up eggs as they build their sandcastles.
It was so hot and still, so we didn't spend much time there at the beach. We drove back to the picturesque theatre ruins. In order to view them properly we actually had to get out of the car and sweat a little. We explored the theater and a street with columns ... very nice. This was a good visit.
Back to the car and off to our next and final destination: Kas.”
C M Gervais (Blog)
Turquoise Delight Patara, Turkey: it's got one of the longest beaches in the Med, Roman ruins and a wonderful hotel that won't break the bank
by Annie Mills The Guardian, Saturday 5 August 2000
by Annie Mills The Guardian, Saturday 5 August 2000
“I glanced down and saw a baby tortoise crawling past my toes. His shell was a murky green and his tiny head no larger than my little finger. I picked him up, whereupon he stretched out his head, eyes open, and peed. I put him down and turned once more to the scene I'd left behind. The sun, low in the sky, was throwing striped shadows across the broken columns of Patara's Roman amphitheatre. Scores of local schoolchildren, transfixed in the stone seats, listened to an archaeology professor spinning them stories of the city in which they sat: Xanthos - whose terrible massacres, wars, glory and heroism have been described by Homer, Herodotus and Plutarch.
little shade, so be prepared for a day of sun. The Patara ruins are interesting: a sand-swept theatre, a triple-arched triumphal gate, a necropolis (cemetery) with Lycian tombs, a ruined basilica and a public bath, among others.
Getting There
Patara is a small village on the south-west Aegean coast of Turkey, known as the Turquoise Coast, and is famous for having one of the longest beaches in the Mediterranean. Its 18km of sand provides plenty of raw material for armies of children to build metropoli of sandcastles, as well as a nesting place for turtles, which between June and August emerge at night to lay their eggs in the sands.
Patara is said to be the birthplace of Apollo and, when the Roman empire was at its height, it was one of the most important harbours in the western Mediterranean, sheltering ships from all over the ancient world. You can still find the remains of merchants' bath-houses, their roofs open to the skies. Fallen Porphyry columns lie beside the largest avenue that the Romans ever built.
Most atmospheric of all, though, is Patara's Roman amphitheatre. Once it seated 10,000 citizens, now half of it lies buried under an enormous sand dune. Shelley could have had this place in mind when he wrote his famous sonnet, Ozymandias - "Round the decay/Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare/The lone and level sands stretch far away".
In 1992, when tourism was just beginning to make its mark on Patara, the Turkish government slapped a preservation order on the town to protect the ruins. The locals were furious, and one miscreant hotel builder (his creation is the only scar on the wooded horizon) has been sent to prison for building without permission. But for the visitor, it is a godsend that this peaceful refuge cannot be developed further. The most wonderful thing about Patara - ruins, turtles and beach aside - is the Viewpoint Hotel, owned by Muzaffer Otlu. Despite sounding like a B&B in Eastbourne, the Viewpoint is a very special place. This is not because of the accommodation, although the rooms are perfectly adequate; nor because of the amazing food, but because of the
Patara is said to be the birthplace of Apollo and, when the Roman empire was at its height, it was one of the most important harbours in the western Mediterranean, sheltering ships from all over the ancient world. You can still find the remains of merchants' bath-houses, their roofs open to the skies. Fallen Porphyry columns lie beside the largest avenue that the Romans ever built.
Most atmospheric of all, though, is Patara's Roman amphitheatre. Once it seated 10,000 citizens, now half of it lies buried under an enormous sand dune. Shelley could have had this place in mind when he wrote his famous sonnet, Ozymandias - "Round the decay/Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare/The lone and level sands stretch far away".
In 1992, when tourism was just beginning to make its mark on Patara, the Turkish government slapped a preservation order on the town to protect the ruins. The locals were furious, and one miscreant hotel builder (his creation is the only scar on the wooded horizon) has been sent to prison for building without permission. But for the visitor, it is a godsend that this peaceful refuge cannot be developed further. The most wonderful thing about Patara - ruins, turtles and beach aside - is the Viewpoint Hotel, owned by Muzaffer Otlu. Despite sounding like a B&B in Eastbourne, the Viewpoint is a very special place. This is not because of the accommodation, although the rooms are perfectly adequate; nor because of the amazing food, but because of the
years of toil and thought that have gone into it. The tables, bar, flooring - even the ashtrays - have been fashioned from the same white-and-black marble quarried in central Anatolia, according to Muzaffer's personal specification. Behind the two-storey building is a terraced orchard, planted with lemon, orange, fig and apricot trees. "Eat as much as you like," says Muzaffer. But the Viewpoint's pièce de résistance is its Ottoman terrace, roofed in bamboo, the sides open to the stars. In the evenings, guests recline on the low cushions - in one hand an aperitif made from Turkish almonds, in the other a pair of backgammon dice. The sweet smell of burning cedarwood wafts across the terrace. I spent every evening out here listening to the crickets.
Muzaffer also runs tours. One day, we set off for a boat trip along the coast, stopping on the way to see the tomb of St Nicholas. That's right - Santa Claus, otherwise known as Lapland's most famous son, who was born in Patara and spent much of his life as a bishop in Myra. We boarded a wooden boat with a sundeck roof. From the sea, the Taurus mountains looked like the backs of dinosaurs; the dark, blue ridges curving into the water one after another, so that there were 10 horizons visible at once. We passed pirate hide-outs - caves formed by centuries of waves lapping on limestone outcrops - and stopped in a secluded bay to dive into the cool, clear, aquamarine water. The captain cooked a barbeque on the beach. Then we set off for Kekova island. In the 5th century BC, before the water level rose, there was a thriving city here. Stairways, foundations of houses and the arch of a temple are still visible still under the sea.
On another trip, winding up into the Taurus foothills, we came upon the Saklikent gorge, through which a river flows down to a sun-filled plain. Walking down a footpath above the rushing torrent, you come to a shady clearing, and from the feet of the cliffs, as if from the rocks themselves, splurges of spring water gush over boulders to join the river. Enterprising locals have built bamboo platforms a foot above the torrent, upholstered in cushions of Turkish carpet. I lay upon one, splashing the icy water on my face, watching the kingfishers play mating games in the fig trees overhead. What a place for a midnight encounter, in August, when the figs are ripe.”
Muzaffer also runs tours. One day, we set off for a boat trip along the coast, stopping on the way to see the tomb of St Nicholas. That's right - Santa Claus, otherwise known as Lapland's most famous son, who was born in Patara and spent much of his life as a bishop in Myra. We boarded a wooden boat with a sundeck roof. From the sea, the Taurus mountains looked like the backs of dinosaurs; the dark, blue ridges curving into the water one after another, so that there were 10 horizons visible at once. We passed pirate hide-outs - caves formed by centuries of waves lapping on limestone outcrops - and stopped in a secluded bay to dive into the cool, clear, aquamarine water. The captain cooked a barbeque on the beach. Then we set off for Kekova island. In the 5th century BC, before the water level rose, there was a thriving city here. Stairways, foundations of houses and the arch of a temple are still visible still under the sea.
On another trip, winding up into the Taurus foothills, we came upon the Saklikent gorge, through which a river flows down to a sun-filled plain. Walking down a footpath above the rushing torrent, you come to a shady clearing, and from the feet of the cliffs, as if from the rocks themselves, splurges of spring water gush over boulders to join the river. Enterprising locals have built bamboo platforms a foot above the torrent, upholstered in cushions of Turkish carpet. I lay upon one, splashing the icy water on my face, watching the kingfishers play mating games in the fig trees overhead. What a place for a midnight encounter, in August, when the figs are ripe.”
