The Turkish south coast doesn't just have beaches and holiday resorts to offer. Some of the country's most important sights are also located on the Turkish Riviera.
Antalya has more than 3,000 years of history, so a stroll through Antalya's old town Kaleici is a must. The historic district is located directly above the harbour and is surrounded by old city walls and Hadrian's Gate.
Right in front of the city of Antalya you can admire the natural spectacle of the Düden Waterfalls. The 30-kilometer-long river of the same name creates enormous masses of water that fall from a height of 40 meters into the open sea.
You don't have to travel to Rome, Verona or Pula to see an ancient theatre. The Aspendos Theatre, a few kilometres northeast of Belek, was built in the second half of the second century and has 39 rows of seats.
An ancient city with a special history lies about 120 kilometres southwest of Antalya. Once known as Myra, the mountainous town of Demre is now not only a well-known pilgrimage site for St. Nicholas, but also a highlight for many visitors who want to visit the rock tombs of Myra.
The highlight in Side, probably the most famous holiday resort, is the Apollo Temple, which is spectacularly located directly on the beach. The temple was built in the second century BC and dedicated to the god of light, Apollo. Next door was the Temple of Athena.
Traveling through Izmir again, today we will go to the so-called Asansör, a historic passenger and goods elevator in the Konak district, correctly in the Karataş district.
We had already made an appointment several times to meet with Ömer for a canoe tour on the Oymapinar reservoir, at the so-called "Green Canyon", but something always came up.
We met Silvia and Anselm at a campsite near Venice as part of our project "Comprehension and Cultural Trip along Roman Roads" and were able to experience their experience and knowledge of the city of Venice on a shared city tour. For the first time with the two of them, the idea of wintering for campers on the Turkish Riviera was pushed so strongly that we subsequently looked more and more into this possibility.
We drove through the foothills of the Taurus over wonderful pass roads near Ermenek to the apricot town of Mut and then continued our way towards Karaman. Patrick, our paragliding friend from Strasbourg, had reported courageously about the ruins of a basilica and a wonderfully shimmering lake during a sightseeing flight in the region, which he had seen from the air near the town of Dağ Pazarı.
Kumkuyu, the modern Turkish name of the ancient settlement area of the semi-nomadic Tirtar ethnic group, is located in the south of Erdemli County on the D-400 highway, about 15 kilometres southwest of the district town of the same name and about 50 kilometres southwest of the provincial capital Mersin.
A few years have passed since we were last on the 400-meter-high mountain right next to the new road tunnels near Alanya to visit the Helenistic ruined city of Hamaxia, which is just over half an hour's walk and within sight of Cleopatra's beach.
On the way to Sanliurfa we first passed Adana on the toll road E90 towards Ceyhan.
After visiting Yilan Kalesi fortress near Ceyhan and some very interesting days in Sanliurfa and Göbekli Tepe, we arrived in Tarsus on the way back towards Alanya.
We accepted the invitation to participate in the event "Human Landscapes - Six Author Portraits of Turkey" at Akdeniz University (AKVAM) in cooperation with the Goethe Institute Izmir, which included the seminar on the presentation of 6 well-known writers (Nazim Hikmet, Yasar Kemal, Orhan Pamuk , Elif Safak, Murathan Mungan, Asli Erdogan) by the documentary filmmaker Osman Okkan in his own facility in Adrasan.
Another sight of Roman antiquity awaits the traveller of the Kizkalesi area at the end of a river bed, which the locals call Devil's Valley. Almost always dry as a bone in summer, you can use the Teufelstal river bed for a hike to the ancient stone sculptures of people – let’s go to Adamkayalar.
Excavations in the extremely fertile region of the Göksu Delta show a number of prehistoric relics, so that the settlement history at Silifke can be traced back to at least the Bronze Age.
Shortly after our return to Turkey, after an extensive round trip through Germany, our friend Detlef from Halle announced that he would be visiting us for the coming weekend.
About 18 kilometers east of Selinus, which is now known as Gazipasa, the ancient city of Antioch ad Cragum once stood high on the rocks above the sea.
In March of this year we received a call from Germany, which came about through contacts at the Goethe Institute. On behalf of the Pro 7 series Galileo, Maximus Film GmbH was looking for places for the non-typical tourist documentation of travel destinations or tourist offers that the majority of German tourists might not find right away.
Our friend Martin had already invited to an event that required strength last year, but we couldn't do it due to time constraints. We were only able to talk our way out of it at the time because of the promise of participation this year: an insider rafting tour on the Alara River.
When our co-author Wolfgang Dorn travels to Turkey, it usually comes to a short get-together for a short trip to one of the many possible destinations along the Turkish Riviera.
About 3 kilometres northwest of the city centre of Kumluca you will find the ancient city of Rhodiapolis on a hill that overlooks the entire valley to the sea and thus also Kumluca and Finike.
After leaving Antalya on highway 400, passing Kemer, Phaselis and Olympos, the road rises briefly to more then 500 meters above sea level. Reaching the other side, the view falls down to the valley and plain of Kumluca in Finike Bay, well known for its fruit and vegetable growing.
Our program would be taking us to XC paragliding event once more on Sunday. However, we were to meet with Beate whom we knew from West Virginia Ranch. We knew that she was taking a group of riders to İbradi uplands.
Emerging from the mountains in the Köprülü District of Antalya, the Alara Stream flows into the sea near the Boztepe village of Manavgat.