Reading list | The Gulf of Fethiye

The Gulf of Fethiye is scattered with islands, some with Byzantine ruins, while the classical remains of Caunas, Xanthos, Letoon and Petara are not far away. Largely built since the earthquakes in the 1950s, the modern resort of Fethiye on the eastern corner of the gulf has few vestiges of a past that dates from its days as Telmessus, a major Lycian city, but among its rock tombs is the Tomb of Amyntas, which has become a symbol of the resort.  Although Mark Antony is said to have given the Turquoise Coast to Queen Cleopatra, there is no evidence that she really did bathe in Hamam, of Cleopatra Bath, Cove, a popular Blue Cruise anchorage. Some 10km to the south of Fethiye is the ghost town of Kayaköy, left to decay since the departure of the Greek population in 1923 and half-toppled in the earthquakes of the 1950s. A Unesco site, it is the setting for Louis de Berniere's Bird Without Wings. 

On the western side of the bay is the attractive small harbour town of Göcek. As it has no sandy beaches, few tourists come here, but it is a haven for sailors. In Cornucopia 15 Amicia de Moubray tells the tale of one of its yachts, a beautiful three-masted schooner that Rudolf Nureyev set his heart on. In the same issue, Richard Tredennick-Titchen describes an experience that changed his life at Huzur Yadisi, an encampment of yurts in a valley out of sight of the sea, high above the marina.