Kıyıköy

Kıyıköy - ancient Midye - sits on a headland between the mouths of two rivers, the Pabuçdere and the Kazandere, on a stretch of Black Sea coast that has almost no development on it. Byzantine walls and two gates still enclose the old village, and narrow streets of stone and timber houses run down to a small fishing harbour. Cut into the rock a short walk outside is the Aya Nikola monastery, a Byzantine complex hewn directly out of the sandstone with a nave, aisles, columns and a spring inside, dated variously between the sixth and the eleventh centuries and unusual in this region. Boats run up the rivers into the Longoz forest behind, which is flooded woodland of the kind protected further north at İğneada. The beaches are broad and empty, the fish restaurants along the harbour are the reason many people come, and the Black Sea here has the same rip currents that make it dangerous everywhere along this coast.

What you actually see

• The Byzantine walls - gates and enclosure around the old village.
• The rock monastery - Aya Nikola cut into the sandstone.
• The two river mouths - boat trips into the flooded forest.
• The empty beaches - wide sand with little built on it.

When to go

May to September for swimming and boat trips; the village is very quiet outside summer and some restaurants close.

Honest expectations

Black Sea currents are dangerous - swim only where others do and treat the sea seriously. The road from Istanbul is three hours. Accommodation is small pensions and books out in August.

Nearby

Vize's Roman and Byzantine remains are inland; the İğneada flooded forests are further up the coast.