Saklikent Gorge

Saklikent - 'the hidden city' - is a crack in the Taurus foothills some 50 km from Fethiye: an 18-kilometre gorge sawn up to 300 metres deep by snowmelt, so narrow in places that the sky closes to a pale ribbon and the sun never reaches the river. It ranks among Turkey's longest and deepest canyons and has been protected as a national park since 1996. The visit is physical and gleeful: a boardwalk bolted to the canyon wall leads above the surging spring-fed river to a beach of grey silt, and from there you wade - icy water to the knees or higher - as far upstream as nerve and season allow, roughly four walkable kilometres once the spring melt drops. Mud baths, cushioned river terraces over the water and tube rides fill out the cheerful bazaar at the gorge mouth.

What's there

• The boardwalk entrance - the walkway bolted above the surging river.
• The wading route - icy thigh-deep water between towering walls.
• The narrows - where the canyon closes to a ribbon of sky.
• The river terraces - cushioned platforms over the water at the gorge mouth.

When to go

June to September for safe water levels - the walkable kilometres open once the Taurus snowmelt subsides. Midday tours crowd the entrance in summer; morning visits beat both the heat and the buses.

Practical notes

The water is cold even in August and the stones are slippery - rent water shoes at the entrance and keep phones in dry bags. High spring flows can close the gorge. The entrance strip is unashamedly touristy; the silence starts a few hundred metres upstream.

Nearby

The ruins of Tlos, Patara's long beach and Fethiye's harbour.