A while ago, I read about a lifestyle movement by the name of Cittaslow in a Turkish magazine, and was amazed to find out there are several member towns and villages in Turkey. One of them caught my attention because of its unique style of architecture. And that was Akyaka, a little fishing village located at the very end of the famous Gulf of Gokova, just 20 minutes by car outside of Marmaris.
The village is unique due to its strict planning rules, which allow no high-rise buildings and any development projects which could negatively affect the environmental and aesthetic profiles of the village. Virtually all houses in Akyaka are designed according to the style made famous by Nil Cakirhan, a Turkish architect born in nearby Ula who specialised in the design and restoration of old Ottoman-era buildings in the province of Mugla. This uniformity in design gives the village of Akyaka a very well-coordinated, tidy and clean look, which is quite unique in this part of the world.
In addition to its one-of-a-kind architectural style, Akyaka also has a nice beach, and is a great place to watch sunset over the Gulf of Gokova. During the summer months, the beach of Akyaka is full of visitors from nearby Mugla, and places on the beach are hard to find. In the low season, however, the place has a very leisurely pace, with just a few hundred people living in the village on a permanent basis. Many of the shops in the village centre remain open throughout the year, while some of the hotels and restaurants are also open during the winter months.
Located at the mouth of the Azmak river, Akyaka has a beautiful natural setting, with high mountains full of pine trees at the rear, and the scenic Gulf of Gokova at the front of the village. The centre of Akyaka is compact enough to walk around in less than an hour. Frequent buses connect Akyaka with Mugla and Marmaris. Visitors can take a 30-minute boat ride that goes upstreams of the Azmak river and explore the wetland landscape which provides a natural habitat for a wide variety of flora and fauna. In the summer months, regular boat trips to the bays and coves of the Gulf of Gokova depart from the small harbour of Akyaka and enable the tourists to visit some places along the Gulf which are accessible only by boat.
In the afternoon, the tea gardens and the sandy beach are the place where people gather to enjoy some tea and snacks, chat with one another, and wait to watch one of the most scenic sunsets in this part of the Mediterranean.
Most hotels in Akyaka are open from the first week of April till end of the year. Although the village has by and large stayed outside the radar of foreign visitors to Turkey, an increasing number of expatriates living on a long-term basis in big resort towns along Turkey's Mediterranean coast have come to discover this charming little seaside village. For those who are fed up with the usual bustling bazaar tourism towns and are looking for a quiet and peaceful holiday retreat to spend a few days, Akyaka is a place to consider.
Copyrights@2012. All text and photos by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.
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