Dalaman is one of the towns of the province of Muðla that in recent years has begun to develope into a centre of tourism.

There is everything required for tourism here but it was with the opening of the Dalaman Airport that tourism in the town gained momentum.

 

In Dalaman, and especially on the Kapýdað Peninsula, there are coves of extraordinary beauty, some of which can only be reached by sea. This is why these coves between Marmaris and Göcek are an ideal point for anchoring for the Blue Cruise boats. However, some of the coves, such as Sarsala, can be accessed by road

 

The Dalaman State Production Farm and the Abbas Paþa Farm House

Take a day to visit the State Production Farm in Dalaman. The farmhouse is a huge building surrounded with


green grass just like that on a golf course, monumental palm trees and right next to it is the Abbas Paþa Cami (Mosque). The story of the building is an interesting one, with the Khedive of Egypt, Abbas Paþa, who was an avid hunter, wanting to build a hunting lodge in wild life rich Dalaman region. The construction work was contracted out to a French firm. However, at the same time the firm had been contracted to build a railway station in Egypt. Due to a mix up over the plans, the French built a railway station at Dalaman, where no rail line existed, and a hunting lodge in Egypt. Although it was never used by Abbas Paþa, the building stayed in Dalaman, providing both a thing of architectural beauty and a nice story.

 

The Dalaman River has become one of the Turkey’s most popular rafting spots in recent years. The stream has two different levels of difficulty. The higher one has a difficulty level of  3th grade and can only be undertaken with rafting boats. The lower level can be done by "river canoeing" and is advised for the beginners. On this stage, which only has a level one difficulty rating, children can also join in. This might be the last year when one can raft or river canoe on the Dalaman Stream as the building of a dam on the waterway is progressing rapidly. If you are interested you should hurry up. According to the brochures of the travel agencies, the lower rafting-canoeing trail of the Dalaman Stream starts at Demirli Köyü - Akköprü (village of Demirli-White Bridge) region and ends after a 12 kilometres trip in the Arpacýk region.

The travel agencies that conduct rafting tours also transfer clients to the starting point of the rafting. The clients are met with cold drinks, and given a briefing on rafting, technical equipment and issues to be beware of. You get to the location for the day’s lunch break for one hour and five kilometres from Akköprü. Lunch is served in the open air. After the lunch break, you row to the 10 kilometre point on the trail and this is followed by a relaxing swim.

 

Most of the material needed to build the train station of Dalaman came by ship from France. These ships pulled into the sheltered and calm cove of Sarsala, which is 12 kilometres from Dalaman. The cove today is one of the most popular stop points of the boats and yachts on the Blue Cruise.

The water of the cove is very clean, and where there is no construction pine trees grow down to the sea. The only drawback of the area was that it had a very bad road. However, now you can get there easily using any type of vehicle. To get there you take the road from the airport through the village of Kapýkargýn. Keeping to the forest road you come to one of the branches of Dalaman Stream, the Tersakan Çayý, and arrive after passing by many sulphurous lakes that are linked to the sea. The trip is scenic and extremely pleasant. When you reach the top of the cove you come across a really wonderful panoramic view. (For the coves and islands of the Kapýdað Peninsula, which face the Gulf of Göcek see the Blue Cruise and Yacht Tourism pages in the Muðla section.)

 

After you have travelled for two kilometres away from Dalaman towards Fethiye you will see the turn to Þerefler village. Leave the main road and take it. Þerefler is only a kilometre from the turning point. The ruins from the ancient Carian city of Kalynda are on a hillside just 200 metres above the village school building. Little of Kalynda has survived to present day. All in all, there are just a few pieces of wall and that is it. The historian Herodotus wrote of Kalynda that the city for some time was under the rule of Kaunos and, by allying itself with Knidos, it revolted against Kaunos. Under siege, it then asked for the help of the people of Rhodes. Kalynda minted its own coins, with the portrait of God Zeus and a figure of an eagle with wide open wings and holding a bolt of lightning appearing on them.

 

What about a tour to the ancient settlements of Krya, Lissia and Lydia? There have been no excavations carried out on these ancient cities. The ruins are spread around but we are certain that they will offer a pleasant tour.

Krya, according to some historians, was a Carian city and according to others a Lycian one. The tombs cut into the stone in Taþkaya, to the south west of Krya, are an indicator that the city was Lycian. The ancient city of Lissa is to the south of the Kargin Lake. On the western end of the Gulf of Fethiye you will comes across the ruins from the ancient city of Lydia. Lydia gained importance under Byzantine rule and you can see remains from this era also.

 

Hippokome is 30 kilometres from Dalaman. The ruins of the ancient city  are on a hillside in the Asarý region near the village of Çöðmen and are interesting to see. In Hippokome whose name meant the City of Horses, there are six stone tombs in the south east that attracts one’s attention. In the south west part of the old city there are more tombs, similar to the ones in Telmossos in Fethiye and in the Kepezbaþý region there are ruins of buildings that are dated to Roman and Byzantine eras.

There are other sites to visit that we can recommend to those who stay in Sarýgerme or Dalaman and want to spend more time looking around. There are stone tombs in Gökdað, Lycian stone-cut tombs in Kayadibi, the ancient city of Oktapolis in Bozbel, the Hiras, Ilýca and Çal streamlets in Hisar, the Demiriçi Çarþýsý (the metal market) in Gürköy and historical Akköprü on the Dalaman Stream