Bafa Lake and Kapıkırı

Visible from the road as you travel between Didim and Bodrum Airport, among the villages, there is a body of water that appears to be surrounded on all sides by mountains. In fact, this lake, called Bafa, is open at one end onto the Söke Plain, now farmland and a nature reserve. Not so long ago in geological terms, and certainly within recorded human history, the Söke Plain was under water and part of the Aegean Sea. It was possible to travel by boat all the way from the island of Samos, via Priene and Miletus, to Kapıkırı, now landlocked and kilometres from the nearest coast. Slowly, over centuries, the River Meander silted up the bay to create the Söke Plain and Bafa Lake, leaving Kapıkırı as a lakeside village rather than a seaside port.

The village and the area surrounding it are dripping in history. The landscape is like something from a fairy tale – boulders the size of houses that look as though they have been cascaded down the mountains by angry giants. Mount Latmos, known in Turkish as Beşparmak, or Five Fingers, spreads its petticoats out, while vineyards and villages nestle in its skirts. The lake itself, home to both freshwater and saltwater fish, is dotted with small islands, including one close to the shoreline crowned by the ruins of an ancient building. Nearby is a beach, home to a fishmonger's shack and a biplane chassis. The village of Kapıkırı shares the same footprint as ancient Herakleia, where village houses and medieval ruins rub shoulders. Herakleia itself was built from the remains of the even more ancient city of Latmos.

Walk around the edge of the lake until the path runs out and you’ll pass lush farmland, donkeys, pomegranate trees and flamingos. Venture up into the hills and risk being lost forever – what looks like a path quickly becomes a goat trail and then disappears altogether. Until just a few years ago, would-be visitors to the ruins of nearby Yediler Monastery would follow the occasional tree marking on an otherwise invisible trail, clambering up and down rocky outcrops using their hands and feet like mountain climbers. Strangers on the trail would nod knowingly to one another in acknowledgement – or warning – of the feat they were undertaking.

Now the path is considerably easier: you can actually see it, and it’s gravelled for most of the way. For better or worse? Hard to say. Yediler Monastery is home to an astonishing example of Byzantine Christian art: a fresco depicting the life of Christ and the resurrection of Lazarus, painted before the 14th century onto the surface of a naturally formed, umbrella-like rock overhang. Now accessible to the most casual visitor, the fresco has deteriorated dramatically since the path was improved, damaged by weather erosion and the careless touch of human hands.

Even as the fresco disappears into history forever, what remains of the monastery itself holds strong. Hewn from the dense igneous boulders scattered throughout the area, the monastery was built in the hills to provide refuge for monks. Others lived as hermits in well-concealed caves, drawn to the same area as prehistoric artists millennia before, who decorated the caves with images of people holding hands, dancing together, and mothers with children. The peaceful subjects of these Latmos cave paintings are quite unlike those of much prehistoric art around the world, which more commonly depicts hunters, weapons and wild animals. Despite the area being home to wild boar, jackals and, until relatively recently, hyenas, brown bears and the Anatolian leopard, the prehistoric residents felt moved to record their peaceful life among the mountains.

Coming back down to the village of Kapıkırı, the tired traveller may look for somewhere to rest and have some refreshment. There are no modern chains here, but there are a number of restaurants in the village serving homemade food and local produce. And even if you wanted to, it would be hard to avoid the teyzes in their flowery shalwar and headscarves decorated with delicate, lace-like oya, who enthusiastically sell handicrafts to curious visitors.

Bafa Lake and Kapıkırı are just half an hour or forty minutes’ drive from Didim, but a visit there is like a trip back in time.

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