Kızkalesi 5 km up the coast is the name both of an island castle, and the mainland village of population 1800.
Get in
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Map of Narlıkuyu
Narlıkuyu and Kızkalesi are on Highway D400, which runs the length of Turkey's Mediterranean coast and beyond. They're 65 km west of Mersin the provincial capital, 27 km west of Erdemli and 20 km east of Silifke.
Neither village is a destination for the inter-city bus lines - try asking if they're willing to drop off / pick up along D400. Otherwise change in Silifke or Mersin for a dolmuş. These make multiple stops and are more convenient, eg for Heaven & Hell chasms 3 km west of Narlıkuyu.
Get around
[edit]Use the dolmuş to get around these straggling towns. Heaven & Hell in Turkish is Cennet-Cehennem, pronounced jayn nayt jay hayn naym - you'll be dropped at the junction with the main highway and have 3 km to walk up the road.
See
[edit]- Narlıkuyu Museum, Çerkez Sk 10 (50 m east of Calamie Hotel). Tu-Su 09:00-17:00. It's just a single mosaic from a Roman bath house of 4th century AD, depicting the three daughters of Zeus skinny-dipping. The bath complex was extensive, a spa resort in effect, fed by natural springs. Only this patch has survived and in 1976 it was enclosed in situ within the museum building.
- 1 Heaven & Hell (Cennet & Cehennem), Atatürk Cd (2 km off D400). Daily 08:30-17:00. Two chasms formed when underground caves collapsed. Go first to Hell 200 m north of the entrance as the walking route doesn't let you return from Heaven. Hell is the smaller, deeper chasm at 120 m and decorated by stalagmites, but there's no access into it, just peer from the glass platform into its green depths. In legend Zeus temporarily imprisoned the monster Typhon in Cehennem, before placing him beneath Mt Etna. Continue to Heaven, which is larger and 70 m deep. You descend by 300 ancient steps into a green Arcadian gully. At its south end is a further descent of 150 steps to the ruins of St Mary's 5th century monastery. You can hear the rushing of an underground stream, but over the centuries pilgrims have choked off its access with plastic trash. If you're lucky the elevator will be working to return you to the entrance, otherwise you have to lump back up the steps. Adult €12.
- Temple of Zeus is gently crumbling by the road outside the chasm entrance.
- Asthma Cave (Astım Mağarası) (500 m south of Heaven & Hell). Daily 08:00-18:30. Decorated karstic show cave, reached by continuing up the road past Heaven & Hell. They're evasive about whether asthma is alleviated by the cave vapours or exacerbated by the steep steps. Adult €12.
- 2 Maiden's Castle (Kızkalesi). daily 08:00-17:00. Substantial fortress occupying an islet 300 m off Kızkalesi village, reached by small boat. It was built in the 12th century, reinforced in the 13th and occupied into Ottoman times. The "maiden" is fictional, a princess supposedly sent here by her father the king to prevent her foretold death by snake-bite. But he sends her a basket laden with grapes and Freudian symbolism, and sure enough a snake hides in the fruit and bites her. This wily reptile must then have escaped, as he pops up in other legends about secluded maidens despoiled by fangs or similar ignoble pricks.
- Korykos Castle stood opposite the islet, once connected by a breakwater and with an adjacent necropolis. It was part of the city walls, but the area now is modern, with a Turkish flag fluttering over it.
- 3 Elaiussa Sebaste
is the ruins of a Roman city 4 km northeast of Maiden's Castle. It was founded in the 2nd century BC on what was then an islet, but this is now engulfed by sand. The town spread up the slopes until the 3rd century AD, when it became vulnerable to seaborne attack and was abandoned. In modern times D400 highway sliced though it. The main ruins are north / uphill from the highway, with an amphitheatre, agora and aqueduct. You can stroll the area 24 hours.
Do
[edit]Beaches are stony. You'll want beach shoes, which also offer some protection against sea urchins.
Buy
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There's a Carrefour in Susanoğlu and another in Kızkalesi, both prominent along the main highway and open daily to 22:00.
Eat
[edit]- Narlıkuyu waterfront has a line of fish restaurants, which include Mehmet Canatan, İnci, Kerim, Yunus, Mustafa Canatan and Ali Baba. Narlıkuyu Lokmac Teacher's Place by the museum serves desserts.
- Atatürk Cd is the road off D400 winding up to Heaven & Hell. Several along here, some are replica tents of the nomadic Yörük tribes. These offer Turkish cheese-pancake (gözleme) and ayran yoghurt drink.
- Kızkalesi has Akrabanın Yeri, Otopark Restaurant, Güngör, Deniz Adana, Adana Ocakbaşı, Zeugma Kebap, Rumeli İşkembecisi, Akdeniz and Tuğçe.
Drink
[edit]- "Dear Visitor, if you wonder who has discovered the origin of this miraculous water, know that he is Poimenios, the friend of the emperors and the honest administrator of the holy islands." - inscription on the bath house mosaic
- Many cafes serve beer.
- Yayık ayranı is a local version of ayran yoghurt, served with crushed ice.
Sleep
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- 1 Calamie Hotel, Nazım Hikmet Cd, ☏ +90 324 723 3062. Pleasant hotel with beach club. B&B double 3000 TL.
- Kızkalesi has a string of pansiyons and small hotels on or near the highway. They include Yaka Inn, Paşa Hotel, Etap and Rüya Motel.
- Susanoğlu is a beach village with accommodation 3 km southwest of Narlıkuyu.
Connect
[edit]Narlıkuyu and the coast highway have 4G from all Turkish carriers. As of March 2025, 5G has not rolled out in Turkey.
Go next
[edit]- Mersin east is an industrial port but with several antiquities.
- Silifke west is a transport hub, with ferries to Northern Cyprus from its port of Taşucu.
- Kyrenia, reached by ferry from Taşucu, is the most attractive town in Northern Cyprus, with its castle rearing over the harbour.
| Routes through Narlıkuyu |
| Antalya ← Silifke ← | W  E
|
→ Mersin → Adana |