Kızkumu

Kızkumu - maiden's sand - is a natural bar of coarse reddish sand and gravel running out from the shore at Orhaniye across most of the width of the bay, sitting a foot or two below the surface. The effect is the attraction: people walk out along it for several hundred metres with water to the knee or thigh and deep blue on either side, which from the shore looks like walking on the sea. The legend attached explains it as a princess fleeing pirates who carried sand in her skirts to build a path, and drowned when it ran out - hence the name. Geologically it is a spit of eroded reddish rock deposited by currents. The bay behind is a sheltered yacht anchorage with restaurants and small hotels along the shore. Staying on the bar matters: step off the edge and it drops away sharply, and the bar itself is eroding, so walking it in single file rather than trampling the edges is asked of visitors.

What you actually see

• The submerged bar - the walk out into the middle of the bay.
• The red sand - the distinctive coarse reddish grains.
• The sheltered bay - yachts anchored in Orhaniye's inlet.
• The pine shores - forested slopes around the water.

When to go

May to June and September to October. Calm days make the bar easiest to see and walk; wind and chop obscure it.

Honest expectations

The drop-off either side of the bar is sudden and deep - keep to it and watch children closely. The bar is eroding and visitors are asked to walk single file. It is a pebble-and-gravel shore, not a sandy beach.

Nearby

Bozburun and Selimiye are further down the peninsula; Marmaris is about 25 km north.