One of the days we were staying in Fethiye, Turkey, we took advantage of the fact that we had a rental car and drove to both of the nearby sites of Tlos and Saklikent Gorge.

Tlos

Tlos is slightly off the beaten path, but we had seen that it was an excellent site due to a great site called Turkey’s For Life.

We were lucky enough to still have the rental car, so Tlos was an easy drive from where we were staying in Fethiye.

We had seen several ruins in Greece and Turkey in the last couple of weeks, but Tlos still ranked as one of our top experiences of the month!

Tlos was one of the most important cities in ancient Lycia. It is a fascinating site because it has been pretty much continually occupied from the time of Lycia all the way up to the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century! It has the distinctive rock tombs of Lycia, as well as an a Roman-era acropolis, theater, stadium, and baths. In addition there are Byzantine church ruins and an Ottoman-era fortress atop the peak.

Distinctive Lycian rock tombs and sarcophogi

Jelfie in the stadium with the Ottoman fortress in the background

Jelfie in front of the baths

More exploring the baths

The theater

The other reason we chose to visit Tlos was that it is in an absolutely awesome setting, situated in the foothills of the Akdağlar mountain range. The views over the Xanthos valley below were breathtaking! And, to make it even more impressive, we were the only visitors at the site that day, so we were able to take it all in without any distractions.

Tlos sits perched a top a mountain in an amazing location

Dana surveys her domain

Hiking the hills of Tlos

The fam!

We highly recommend a visit to Tlos!

Saklikent Gorge

Saklikent Gorge was just a bit farther down the road than Tlos, so when we were done exploring the ruins we hopped back in the car and headed there. This site is definitely on the beaten path, but because it was off season, we had it mostly to ourselves.

We were excited to visit because we had heard that it was a slot canyon, similar to one in Zion National Park in the USA. You are supposed to be able to explore up the canyon, even wading through the stream at times.

This is what you do in high season

However, because it was winter, that part of the canyon was closed. We were able to walk a little of the way in and enjoy the rushing water and the scenery.

Walking into the gorge

The water gets pretty powerful

The clear blue spring water meets the river water from upstream

This is where we would have started wading in the stream had it been high season

We also enjoyed some of the signs warning us of the danger in the canyon. We feel a little bad giggling at bad English translations, but it brings some funny pictures to the mind!

First, make sure to follow the directions! After all, the officials do, so you should too!

If you get hit by a rock, at least you will want to look jaunty in your “baret!”

You can only enter illegally from a baret!

Protest those Rolling Stones!

There was one other group exploring the canyon. We were only able to communicate at a bare minimum, but we gathered they were from another town along the Turquoise Coast. They were interested in taking some photos with us.

While Saklikent was definitely a pretty place, we wish we could have visited during high season when we could have hiked the canyon, despite knowing that we would have had to fight the crowds.