Kekova is a small Turkish island near

Demre Demre is a municipality and district of Antalya Province, Turkey. Its area is 329 km2, and its population is 27,691 (2022). It was named after the river Demre. Demre is the Lycian town of Myra, the home of Saint Nicholas of Myra. The distr ...

(Demre is the

Lycia Lycia (; Lycian: 𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊖 ''Trm̃mis''; , ; ) was a historical region in Anatolia from 15–14th centuries BC (as Lukka) to 546 BC. It bordered the Mediterranean Sea in what is today the provinces of Antalya and Muğ ...

n town of

Myra Myra (; , ''Mýra'') was a city in Lycia. The city was probably founded by Lycians on the river Myros (; Turkish: ''Demre Çay''), in the fertile alluvial plain between, the Massikytos range (Turkish: ''Alaca Dağ'') and the Aegean Sea. By the ...

) district of

Antalya province Antalya Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality of Turkey. It is located on the Mediterranean Region, Turkey, Mediterranean coast of south-west Turkey, between the Taur ...

which faces the villages of

Kaleköy Kaleköy (literally "Castle's village" in Turkish) is a village of the Demre district in the Antalya Province of Turkey, located between Kaş and Demre, on the Mediterranean coast. Kaleköy faces the island of Kekova, and can be reached by s ...

(ancient Simena) and Üçağız (ancient Teimioussa). Kekova has an area of and is uninhabited. It was known as

Dolichiste Doliche or Dolichiste ( or ; '' Eth.'' or ) was an island noted by ancient geographers in the Mediterranean Sea off the Lycian coast, in Asia Minor, now called Kekova (or Kakava (Κακαβάς) in Modern Greek), which is located in present-day A ...

(

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Δολιχίστη) in antiquity.

Island

After the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

occupation of Kastelorizo, Kekova – which at that time was temporarily inhabited during summer because of wood harvestBertarelli (1929), p.134 – was disputed between Italy and Turkey. The 1932 Convention between Italy and Turkey assigned it to Turkey. On its northern side are the partly sunken ruins of ''Dolchiste/Dolikisthe'', an ancient town which was destroyed by an

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

during the 2nd century. Rebuilt and still flourishing during the Byzantine Empire period, it was finally abandoned because of

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

incursions. The ''Tersane'' (meaning "dockyard", as its bay was the site of an ancient city Xera and dockyard, with the ruins of a Byzantine church) is at the northwest of the island. The Kekova region was declared a specially protected area on 18 January 1990 by the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Forest. All kinds of diving and swimming were prohibited and were subjected to special permits from governmental offices. In later years the prohibition has been lifted, except for the part where the sunken city is located. The Kekova region is and encompasses the island of Kekova, the villages of

and Üçağız and the four ancient towns of Simena, Aperlae, Dolchiste and Teimioussa.

(locally just "Kale") (ancient Simena) is a Lycian site on the Turkish coast. It is a small village with the partly sunken ruins of AperlaeCity of Aperlae
/ref> and a castle. Access to the village is possible only by sea. Üçağız (ancient name, Teimioussa) is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

one km from Kaleköy, north of a small bay by the same name, with the ruins of Teimioussa to the east. The name ''"Üçağız"'' means "three mouths", referring to the three exits to open sea.

Notes

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External links

{{Authority control Islands of Turkey Antalya Turkish Riviera World Heritage Tentative List for Turkey Islands of Antalya Province Demre District