The ancient cities of KAUNOS and KAYAKOY

Boats leave regularly from Dalyan taking tourists to the ancient city of Kaunos. A 10-minute walk from the dock where the boat anchors will bring you to the site of the ancient city's ruins. Some people visit this site by private yacht, anchoring at Delikli Island and making their way by a little boat to the docks here.

As a port city, Kaunos was historically important in terms of trade. As the sea around it filled with alluvium over time, this city lost its special role as a port city. When the Persians took over Anatolia, the city came under the control of Mausolos. And when Alexander defeated the Persians in 334 B.C., the city was ruled first by Princess Ada, then Antigonos and later still Ptolemaios.

Kayaköy, an ancient village close to Ölüdeniz, has been labeled a World Friendship and Peace Village by UNESCO and attracts a great deal of interest from tourists and photographers from all over the world. Tourists arrive by car and bus and can take guided tours of the historical areas of interest. The history of Kayaköy actually stretches back as far as 3000 B.C., and visitors who come here have the chance to see sarcophagi and tombs that belonged to the Lycian civilization.

In the first nine months of 2008 alone, Kayaköy was visited by nearly 55,000 local and foreign tourists.

The province of Muğla has a 1,100 kilometer Aegean shoreline, which boasts some of the world's most jagged, uneven coastal features, with all sorts of large and small bays, gulfs, outcroppings, tiny islands, villages and, of course, the ports of Bodrum, Fethiye, Marmaris and Güllük. Some of its finest landscape is in the Gulf of Gökova: This is a gulf of unparalleled beauty, with forests and fruit orchards that lie just behind the shorelines almost like lace around a piece of fabric. This is one of the most physically beautiful corners of Muğla, with its islands, sand and sea. Also worthy of note is Ölüdeniz: About 15 minutes from Fethiye, the sea is unusually clear here. Yachts are forbidden from entering Ölüdeniz in order to keep its waters as clear as possible. At Babadağ, which features peaks as high as 1,800 meters, you can parachute from the cliffs all seasons of the year.