Hi there,
The day after visiting Pamukkale and taking advantage of the fact that we also had a car for that day, we went to see Patara. This was a very prosperous maritime and commercial city next to the current city of Gelemis, in the province of Antalya. The entrance for the ruins and the beach cost around 3 euros per person.
Just upon entering we find two quite large amphitheaters that are the two most important things to see here.
We toured all the ruins in blistering heat. The complex is big, but the rest of the things are basically stones scattered around.
Then we went to the beach next door. Patara beach is one of the most beautiful and longest in the country. It does not have turquoise water like the rest we saw since it has brown sand, but it is impressive since it is surrounded by mountains, and it is 18 kilometers long. It also has some dunes where people usually stay to watch the sunset.
This beach is under protection and free from urban exploitation due to the presence of the Caretta Caretta turtles that lay their eggs in the area.
We walked for a while, bathed, and took photos. There is only one restaurant on the corner next to where the parking is, so the rest of the beach is free of sunbeds. Also, since people don’t walk much there, they were all concentrated at the entrance to the parking lot; In other words, you have all 18km left to walk with practically no people.
Although it is not the beach with the best color of water, it is worth going there in the morning and spending the whole day exploring.
At the entrance to the parking lot there was a man who was selling corn for about 10 cents. We bought two and I expected the corn from South America, but no, it was the sweet corn that they sell in Europe, so I didn’t eat any more corn during the rest of the trip in Turkey.
We set out on the road to Kas which is a small fishing town named Antiphilos during Greek antiquity. It was also part of the Byzantine Empire after Roman times. After the war between Greece and Turkey, in 1923 most of the Greek population left the town. It still retains its similarity to Greece. The tourist boom began in 1990.
The drive was by the sea and the view was beautiful. We stopped at a viewpoint to take photos and as always, there were piles of garbage.
We arrived and the first thing we did was look for a place to have lunch and we found a restaurant with vegan kebabs that were delicious. In the bathroom of this restaurant, I found some green Ray ban sunglasses that from that day on became my favorites.
After eating, we walked through the streets of Kas and the part of the bazaar is super cute. Then we went up to see the tombs that are embedded in the mountain. It is not signposted; you just go exploring and getting between the houses. Here at 15h we were already sweating profusely. I read that in those legendary tombs is where they kept the gold.
We also visited an amphitheater with free access and totally open, just that day they were practicing for a play.
On the way back we passed by Kaputas Beach, and we saw it from the car since there were a lot of people (it was Sunday) and it was getting late for us to deliver the car. This beach is very famous, but compared to what we had already seen, it was not more special either.
From Kas there are also many other excursions to do and ruins to see. We did not see more of that area because in the end, when time is limited, there is no chance to see everything.
We returned dead tired and although Diego said that he felt that seeing everything so quickly, it was as if he had not visited anything, it was a Sunday well spent.
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