Kekova sunken city: where Simena meets Dolichiste
Stone stairs, houses and landing places extend beneath the water along Kekova Island’s northern shore. These remains reach depths of 4–5 meters. Across the water stands Simena, the Lycian settlement at modern Kaleköy. The familiar phrase “sunken city of Simena” brings these neighboring places together, but their positions matter when you look at the ruins.
Simena occupies a mainland peninsula facing the island. The submerged settlement on the island’s northern coast is known as Dolichiste. Keeping those names separate helps you understand the landscape. The castle and its rock-cut theater belong to Simena. The drowned coastal buildings lie opposite, along Kekova Island.
Where is Kekova in Turkey? Kekova nerede?
Kekova is a rocky Mediterranean island near Demre, in Antalya, offshore from Kaleköy and Üçağız. Its name also describes a wider area. That area includes Simena, Teimiussa, Aperlai İskelesi and the surrounding bays. A reference to “Kekova” may therefore mean the island or this broader coastal setting.
The island covers about 4.5 square kilometers and has no permanent settlement. The ministry’s Simena description gives its length as approximately 7.4 kilometers. It places the island about 500 meters offshore. Simena’s mainland position and Kekova’s facing coast are central to understanding how the surviving buildings relate to one another.
Modern Üçağız occupies ancient Teimiussa. Behind its landing place stands a fourth-century BC house-type tomb. A nude young male figure appears on it. Üçağız therefore belongs to the historical landscape as well as providing boat access to Kaleköy and Kekova Island.
Kekova history: a Lycian settlement and its partners
Simena has been inhabited from at least the fourth century BC to the present. The ministry’s museum account identifies a Lycian inscription and a silver coin found at Aperlai as evidence of its earlier past. It also records that Pliny mentioned Simena in the first century AD. The settlement’s history rests on several kinds of evidence.
Simena joined a partnership led by Aperlai, together with Apollonia and Isinda. Aperlai represented it in the Lycian League. This arrangement places the settlement within a network of neighboring communities. Its political history cannot be read solely from the buildings still visible at Kaleköy.
A Roman bath inscription supplies a more specific connection. It records a dedication to Emperor Titus by the people and council of Aperlai and the other cities of the partnership. The inscription links a building on Simena’s shore with the same wider association of communities.
Why did the Kekova sunken city go underwater?
The date of destruction and the beginning of submergence require care. Wikipedia reports that Dolichiste was destroyed by an earthquake in the second century AD. That account should not become a single certain sinking date for every submerged structure along the coast.
A. H. Özdaş and N. Kızıldağ proposed a different chronology in their 2013 study. Pottery around the submerged quay led them to suggest that submergence began in the early Byzantine period. Their interpretation places the beginning of that process later than the second-century earthquake account.
The same study calculated an average tectonic subsidence rate of at least 1.6 millimeters per year over the last 1,400 years. Subsidence means that the land moves downward. This finding adds a long-term process to the discussion of Kekova’s drowned structures. An earthquake account alone does not express the chronology proposed by the study.
The stairs offer an everyday-life connection. You can relate them to steps used to reach a house or the waterfront. At Kekova, stairs survive among houses and landing structures below the sea. Their familiar function makes the changed relationship between buildings and water easier to grasp.
What can you see on Kekova Island and at Simena?
Kekova’s northern shore preserves the submerged houses, stairs and landing places facing Simena. Elsewhere on the island, Tersane Bay preserves the apse of a Byzantine church. The island’s visible remains therefore include both coastal structures beneath the water and part of a religious building.
At Simena Castle, a theater was carved directly into natural rock. It held approximately 300 people. The largely surviving walls around the inner castle are medieval. The theater and walls belong to different parts of the settlement’s history, even though you encounter them within the same castle setting.
A large necropolis extends northeast of the castle. It contains sarcophagi and rock-cut tombs. These burial structures add another part of Simena’s surviving landscape, alongside its theater, fortifications and coastal bath. One house-shaped rock tomb preserves an inscription in the Lycian language.
Details you won’t find in guidebooks
Simena’s rock-cut theater has only seven seating rows. Its approximate capacity of 300 people gives a sense of scale, but the row count makes its arrangement more concrete. Both details help you picture the theater as an individual structure within the castle.
Traces of a religious building inside Simena Castle preserve successive uses as a temple, a church and finally a mosque. This sequence places several religious uses within one building’s history. The remains add a different kind of continuity to a settlement inhabited since at least the fourth century BC.
The Lycian inscription in the house-shaped tomb belongs within Simena’s necropolis. The Roman bath inscription belongs to its shore. Read together, these two surviving texts connect different parts of the settlement with language, burial and civic dedication. Each also anchors a specific structure within the broader historical account.
Kekova Island also figured in a sovereignty dispute between Turkey and Italy. A convention in 1932 settled the dispute by leaving the island to Turkey. That agreement forms a much later chapter than the Lycian settlement, Byzantine church remains and medieval castle walls.
Kekova boat tour: how to get there and see the ruins
Boats from Üçağız provide access to Kaleköy and Kekova Island. The submerged coastal buildings can be seen from a boat. If you are searching for a “Kekova tekne turu” or a “Kekova sunken city boat trip,” this connection between Üçağız, the island and Simena explains the historical places involved.
The ministry’s archaeological-sites overview states that diving is prohibited in the sunken-city section. Viewing the coastal remains from a boat provides a way to see the drowned structures. Keep their position in mind: Dolichiste lies along the island shore, while Simena stands across the water at Kaleköy.
Timeline
- Fourth century BC: Simena’s settlement history reaches back at least to this period.
- First century AD: Pliny mentions Simena.
- Second century AD: Wikipedia’s account places Dolichiste’s destruction in an earthquake. This is not a certain sinking date for all the submerged remains.
- Early Byzantine period: The 2013 study proposes that submergence began during this period, based on pottery around the submerged quay.
- Middle Ages: The surviving walls around Simena’s inner castle belong to this period.
- 1932: A Turkey–Italy convention leaves Kekova Island to Turkey.
- 18 January 1990: The Kekova Special Environmental Protection Area is declared.
- 25 February 2000: Kekova is submitted to UNESCO’s Tentative List in the mixed cultural and natural category.
- 8 November 2006: The protected area expands westward and takes the name Kaş-Kekova.
- 2013: Özdaş and Kızıldağ’s study examines submergence and tectonic subsidence along the Kekova coast.
How is Kekova protected?
Kekova became a Special Environmental Protection Area through the decision of 18 January 1990. A further decision on 8 November 2006 extended its boundaries westward. The expanded area took the name Kaş-Kekova Special Environmental Protection Area.
Kekova was submitted to UNESCO’s World Heritage Tentative List on 25 February 2000. The submission uses the mixed category, covering cultural and natural values together. Its Tentative List status is distinct from inscription on the World Heritage List.
FAQ
Are Simena and the Kekova sunken city the same place?
Simena stands at modern Kaleköy on the mainland. The submerged settlement along the opposite northern shore of Kekova Island is known as Dolichiste.
When did Kekova’s ancient settlement sink?
An account reported by Wikipedia places Dolichiste’s destruction in a second-century AD earthquake. Research published in 2013 instead proposes that submergence began in the early Byzantine period.
How can you reach Kekova Island?
Boats from Üçağız provide access to Kaleköy and Kekova Island. The submerged coastal structures can be viewed from a boat.
Can you dive at the Kekova sunken city?
The provincial tourism authority states that diving is prohibited in the sunken-city section.
Sources
- Antalya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism — Simena antalya.ktb.gov.tr
- Turkish Museums — Antalya Simena Archeological Site turkishmuseums.kprod.kultur.gov.tr
- Antalya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism — Museums and Archaeological Sites antalya.ktb.gov.tr
- Dokuz Eylül University AVESİS — Archaeological and Geophysical Investigation of Submerged Coastal Structures in Kekova avesis.deu.edu.tr
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Kekova whc.unesco.org
- Ministry of Environment — Kaş-Kekova Marine Management Plan ockb.csb.gov.tr
- Wikipedia — Kekova en.wikipedia.org
- Vikipedi — Kekova tr.wikipedia.org
Image: Kekova island and Kalekoey village.jpg — Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 4.0
