Kaunos Rock Tombs

The tombs are cut into the cliff face directly across the river from Dalyan town, and they are the image of the place: six large facades in the form of Ionic temples, with columns, pediments and doorways carved out of the living rock in the fourth century BCE, plus a scatter of smaller and simpler tombs around them. One is visibly unfinished, the chisel work stopping partway, which tells you more about how they were made than the finished ones do. They belong to Kaunos, a Carian port whose ruins lie a little further round - a theatre, an acropolis, baths, a church and the harbour that silted up as the Dalyan delta formed, leaving the city stranded behind reed beds. The standard way to see the tombs is from a river boat drifting past below, and they are lit at night from the town. Climbing to them is possible from the landward side but the tombs themselves are fenced.

Highlights

• The temple facades - six Ionic tomb fronts cut into the cliff.
• The unfinished tomb - the carving abandoned partway.
• The Kaunos ruins - theatre, acropolis and silted harbour.
• The river view - the tombs from a boat on the Dalyan.

When to go

April to June and September to October. Late afternoon light hits the cliff face; the tombs are floodlit after dark from the town side.

Before you go

The tombs are fenced and not entered - you look from the river or the path. The Kaunos city site is a separate walk with little shade. Boat fares are per boat and negotiated at the quay.

Nearby

İztuzu beach is at the river mouth; the Dalyan mud baths are up toward Köyceğiz lake.

Key facts