Gulf of Gökova
Encyclopedia
Gulf of Gökova or Gulf of Kerme (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,...

: Kerme Körfezi, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

: Κεραμεικός κόλπος, Latin: Ceramicus Sinus, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

: Ceramic Gulf or Gulf of Cos), is a long (100 km), narrow gulf
Headlands and bays
Headlands and bays are two related features of the coastal environment.- Geology and geography :Headlands and bays are often found on the same coastline. A bay is surrounded by land on three sides, whereas a headland is surrounded by water on three sides. Headlands are characterized by high,...

 of the Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

 between Bodrum Peninsula
Bodrum
Bodrum is a port city in Muğla Province, in the southwestern Aegean Region of Turkey. It is located on the southern coast of Bodrum Peninsula, at a point that checks the entry into the Gulf of Gökova. The site was called Halicarnassus of Caria in ancient times and was famous for housing the...

 and Datça Peninsula
Datça Peninsula
The Datça Peninsula is an 80 km-long, narrow peninsula in southwest Turkey separating the Gulf of Gökova to the north from the Gulf of Hisarönü to the south. The peninsula corresponds almost exactly to the administrative district of Datça, part of Muğla Province...

 in south-west 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...

.

Administratively, Gulf of Gökova coastline includes portions of the districts of, clockwise, Bodrum
Bodrum
Bodrum is a port city in Muğla Province, in the southwestern Aegean Region of Turkey. It is located on the southern coast of Bodrum Peninsula, at a point that checks the entry into the Gulf of Gökova. The site was called Halicarnassus of Caria in ancient times and was famous for housing the...

, Milas
Milas
Milas is an ancient city and the seat of the district of the same name in Muğla Province in southwestern Turkey. The city commands a region with an active economy, and the region is very rich in history and its remains, the whole territory of Milas district containing a remarkable twenty-seven...

, 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...

, Ula, 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 Datça
Datça
Datça is a district of Muğla Province in south-west Turkey, and the center town of the district. The center is situated midway through the peninsula which carries the same name as the district and the town .-Geography:...

. The Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 island of Kos
Kos
Kos or Cos is a Greek island in the south Sporades group of the Dodecanese, next to the Gulf of Gökova/Cos. It measures by , and is from the coast of Bodrum, Turkey and the ancient region of Caria. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Kos peripheral unit, which is...

 lies along the entry into the Gulf.

Bodrum
Bodrum
Bodrum is a port city in Muğla Province, in the southwestern Aegean Region of Turkey. It is located on the southern coast of Bodrum Peninsula, at a point that checks the entry into the Gulf of Gökova. The site was called Halicarnassus of Caria in ancient times and was famous for housing the...

, located in its northwest reaches, is the only large city on the gulf today. In ancient times, alongside Halicarnassus
Halicarnassus
Halicarnassus was an ancient Greek city at the site of modern Bodrum in Turkey. It was located in southwest Caria on a picturesque, advantageous site on the Ceramic Gulf. The city was famous for the tomb of Mausolus, the origin of the word mausoleum, built between 353 BC and 350 BC, and...

 (modern-day Bodrum), the city of Ceramus
Ceramus
Ceramus or Keramos was a city on the north coast of the Ceramic Gulf—named for this city—in Caria, in southwest Asia Minor; its ruins can be found outside the modern village of Ören, Muğla Province, Turkey....

, located midway along the gulf's northern shore and after which the gulf was named, was also an important urban center. Across Ceramus (the modern-day township of Ören
Oren
Oren is a Hebrew Old Testament name meaning ash or pine. The son of Jerahmeel ....

, called under the name
Gereme, a derivation of the ancient city's name, until recently), at a short distance from the gulf's southern shore and not far from its outlying waters, was another historical site of note, called Cedrae in ancient times, located in Sedir Island prized by visitors for its beach and of which some remains still exist.

Name

The alluvial plain, also named Gökova, which extends at the Gulf's end is the location of the townships of Akyaka
Akyaka, Mugla
‎Akyaka is a coastal township with its own municipality in the Ula district of Muğla Province in southwestern Turkey. The town is situated at the far end of the Gulf of Gökova, at the start of the fertile Gökova plain, and is a rising centre for international tourism due to its advantageous...

 and Gökova, with only a few kilometers separating the two and these settlements saw their populations increase considerably in recent years, with Akyaka especially becoming a rising center of tourism. The municipalities of both these townships were created of recent date and they depend the town of Ula, located inland and reached through Sakar Pass at an altitude of 670 meters, climbed from sea-level in a short distance and offering an impressive view of the Gulf as a result. That, until 1945, the hamlets across the plain, mostly marshlands ridden with malaria until that time, were collectively known as Gökabad, and that one of the settlements created and the gulf as a whole came to be called under the slightly modified name of Gökova, a term often used to designate the whole area of touristic interest in which Akyaka, and not the neighboring township of Gökova, is actually prominent, may sometimes lead to confusion.

In sum, the name Gökova (itself possibly deriving from Cova, the designation by which the area was known in Ottoman Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 times -mentioned as "Djova" in some English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 navigation charts of recent centuries-) is used alternatively for the gulf, for the plain at the end of the same gulf, for a township situated in the same plain and as a casual term covering the emerging resort area centred in the coastal town of Akyaka, with a sea beach, accommodation, residences and amenities for visitors, seasonal residents and forested uplands. The Caria
Caria
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 of Idyma with acropolis and famed rock tombs is found at Kozlukuyu, Gökova town, inland from Akyaka. In ancient times Akyaka was simply a suburb of Kozlukuyu.

See also

  • Gökova
  • Akyaka
    Akyaka, Mugla
    ‎Akyaka is a coastal township with its own municipality in the Ula district of Muğla Province in southwestern Turkey. The town is situated at the far end of the Gulf of Gökova, at the start of the fertile Gökova plain, and is a rising centre for international tourism due to its advantageous...

  • Ula
  • Sedir Island
  • Blue Cruise
    Blue Cruise
    A Blue Cruise, also known as a Blue Voyage , is a term used for recreational voyages along the Turkish Riviera, on Turkey's southwestern coast...


External links

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