Akyaka, Mugla
Encyclopedia
Akyaka is a coastal township with its own municipality in the Ula district of Muğla Province
Mugla Province
Muğla Province is a province of Turkey, at the country's south-western corner, on the Aegean Sea. Its seat is Muğla, about inland, while some of Turkey's largest holiday resorts, such as Bodrum, Ölüdeniz, Marmaris and Fethiye, are on the coast in Muğla....
in southwestern Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. The town is situated at the far end of the Gulf of Gökova
Gulf of Gökova
Gulf of Gökova or Gulf of Kerme , is a long , narrow gulf of the Aegean Sea between Bodrum Peninsula and Datça Peninsula in south-west Turkey.Administratively, Gulf of Gökova coastline includes portions of the districts of, clockwise, Bodrum, Milas,...
, at the start of the fertile Gökova plain, and is a rising centre for international tourism due to its advantageous location and natural beauties. It is the first coastal town encountered on the busy road from the province centre of Muğla
Mugla
Muğla is a city in south-western Turkey. It is the center of the district the same name, as well as of Muğla Province, which stretches along Turkey´s Aegean coast. Muğla center is situated inland at an altitude of 660 m and lies at a distance of about from the nearest seacoast in the Gulf of...
to the better known resort centre of Marmaris
Marmaris
Marmaris is a port city and a tourist resort on the Mediterranean coast, located in southwest Turkey, in Muğla Province.Marmaris' main source of income is tourism. Little is left of the sleepy fishing village that Marmaris was just a few decades ago after a construction boom in the 1980s...
, and it comes into sight, along with a spectacular view of the gulf and the plain, some thirty miles after departure from Muğla at Sakar Pass, a favorite paraglider
Paragliding
Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure...
s' spot where the road descends from an altitude of 670 m. to sea-level in the space of a pine-clad section of a dozen kilometers along very sharp curves. At the base of the hill is the intersection to Akyaka.
Locally and casually, erroneously and confusingly, the township of Akyaka is sometimes referred to as Gökova, after the name of the gulf and the plain, while there is also an inland township of Gökova
Gökova Town, Muğla, Turkey
Gökova is a municipality in the district of Ula in Muğla Province, Turkey. It lies at the head of the Gulf of Gökova in a plain also known as Gökova...
neighbouring Akyaka, itself of visitor's interest and whose intersection is slightly further ahead from that of Akyaka in the direction of Marmaris.
History
Much of the Gökova plain had been unproductive for centuries, until the later half of the 20th century, and was covered with marshlands ridden with malariaMalaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
. The inhabitants abandoned their settlements and fields entirely during the months of active malaria and moved to highland plateaus (yayla). The arable land available was usually owned by large landowners from the district centere of Ula. An organized program to combat malaria, one of the priorities of the young Turkish Republic of the 1920s, was enacted under a specific law in 1926, in the frame of which ownership titles were awarded to individuals or groups of people on the basis of the swampland they drained, and were quite successful in the transformation of Akyaka region, especially through the local projects lasting from 1925 to 1940. In the following decades, conversion of fields for cash crops, particularly tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
, dominated the local economy and this until the 1970s when the first steps in the tourism industry were taken. Akyaka became quite cosmopolitan in recent years.
Idyma
Safe altitude considerations governed the choice for settlements of the ancients as well. Gökova town, inland from Akyaka was the location of the historic city of Idyma, some of whose remains reaching back at least to the 4th century BC, when it was founded as a CariaCaria
Caria was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionian and Dorian Greeks colonized the west of it and joined the Carian population in forming Greek-dominated states there...
n city, are still visible. Idyma urban zone may have extended as large as the area between the immediate east of Akyaka well beyond the village of Kozlukuyu, a dependent neighborhood of the town of Gökova, 3 km away. The acropolis
Acropolis
Acropolis means "high city" in Greek, literally city on the extremity and is usually translated into English as Citadel . For purposes of defense, early people naturally chose elevated ground to build a new settlement, frequently a hill with precipitous sides...
, city walls 200 meters in length and around fifty rock tombs are located along the steep climb (sea level to 400 meters) of Kucuk Sakar at Kozlukuyu. The Acropolis was explored by the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
archaeologist Louis Robert in 1937.
In 546 BC, the Persian armies under the command of Harpagos conquered the area, but the Carian customs and the religion remained unchanged. Delian League
Delian League
The Delian League, founded in circa 477 BC, was an association of Greek city-states, members numbering between 150 to 173, under the leadership of Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Greco–Persian Wars...
took over between 484 and 405 BC and Idyma is mentioned in the tax lists for the years 453-452 BC, the earliest written document on the city. The same reports mention a local sovereign by the name of Paktyes, whose descendants may have founded a dynasty which governed Idyma and to whose members the rock tombs could be attributable . A mint city, Idyma produced its own coins, one side of which was marked with the name Idimion, and the other side with the head of a Pan
Pan (mythology)
Pan , in Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, as well as the companion of the nymphs. His name originates within the Greek language, from the word paein , meaning "to pasture." He has the hindquarters, legs,...
, hinting at a shepherd's cult .
From 167 BC to at least the 2nd century AD, Idyma, together with the entire region south of Muğla (Mobolla) was part of the Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
's mainland possessions (Peræa Rhodiorum). A Byzantine
Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
castle worth restoring also stands on the slopes of Sakar and an underground tunnel leads to the bank of the stream of Azmakdere or Kadın Azmak, possibly named Idymus in ancient times.
Because of the extent of the ancient site, in terms both of its area and longevity, some of its archaeological finds are associated with Akyaka, while many with Gökova and particularly Kozlukuyu.
Azmak Stream
Azmak is the name in short of a short but deep stream which joins the sea in Akyaka and formed by springs extending about two miles from East to West. Its depth allows boats to ascend it for a considerable distance and the richness of its underwater fauna made it a favorite spot for daily boat tours around Akyaka and for scuba divingScuba diving
Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
. The water is cold and slightly salty due its level course with the sea across the plain, but watercress
Watercress
Watercresses are fast-growing, aquatic or semi-aquatic, perennial plants native from Europe to central Asia, and one of the oldest known leaf vegetables consumed by human beings...
and celery
Celery
Apium graveolens is a plant species in the family Apiaceae commonly known as celery or celeriac , depending on whether the petioles or roots are eaten: celery refers to the former and celeriac to the latter. Apium graveolens grows to 1 m tall...
thrive in Azmak and restaurants along its course make the stream a symbol and an important point of attraction for Akyaka region .
The word "azmak", sometimes used to describe a river, means "running wild" in Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, in a reference to the stream's strong, rather than violent, current, especially in winter. Akyaka's azmak is also referred to under the fuller name of "Kadın Azmak", qualifying it with female attributes and distinguishing it from azmak of Akçapınar at the opposite side of the same plain, or from namesakes in Gallipoli Peninsula or Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
.
See also
- Nail ÇakırhanNail ÇakırhanNail Çakırhan was a Turkish poet and journalist in his career in the beginning, and later a self-taught and award-winning architect and restorer who left his print particularly in the architecture of the coastal township of Akyaka in southwestern Turkey through old houses he had had repaired and...
- Gulf of GökovaGulf of GökovaGulf of Gökova or Gulf of Kerme , is a long , narrow gulf of the Aegean Sea between Bodrum Peninsula and Datça Peninsula in south-west Turkey.Administratively, Gulf of Gökova coastline includes portions of the districts of, clockwise, Bodrum, Milas,...
- Gökova Town, Muğla, TurkeyGökova Town, Muğla, TurkeyGökova is a municipality in the district of Ula in Muğla Province, Turkey. It lies at the head of the Gulf of Gökova in a plain also known as Gökova...
- Turkish RivieraTurkish RivieraThe Turkish Riviera is a term used to define an area of southwest Turkey encompassing Antalya, Muğla and to a lesser extent the provinces of Aydın, southern İzmir and western Mersin...
- Blue CruiseBlue CruiseA Blue Cruise, also known as a Blue Voyage , is a term used for recreational voyages along the Turkish Riviera, on Turkey's southwestern coast...
- Foreign purchases of real estate in TurkeyForeign purchases of real estate in TurkeyPurchasing property in Turkey has become more popular with holiday home owners and investors around the globe. Several factors have contributed to the popularity and the trend displayed by foreign purchases and have had important repercussions within Turkey. The issue is especially notable given...
Sources
