3 Best Sights in The Turquoise Coast, Turkey

An intriguing attraction that has been drawing visitors since before Roman times, these two natural sinkholes were created by an ancient subsidence. The first, located just beyond a small café and ticket booth, is the one referred to as Heaven (Cennet). A five-minute walk takes you down to the peaceful valley floor and the well-preserved 5th-century AD Byzantine Church of the Virgin Mary. The path then descends into a huge, aircraft-hangar-like natural cavern, which might have been the site of a spring known among the ancients as the fountain of knowledge.

Back up the stairs a short walk leads to the Hell (Cehennem) sinkhole, which is narrower, with walls too steep to enter, and deep enough for little sunlight to reach the bottom. A dark and gloomy place, pagan, Christian, and Muslim sources all identify it as an entrance to hell. The road continues to a third cavern, the Cave of Wishes (Dilek Mağarası), also known as Asthma Cave (Astım Mağarası) for the purported respiratory benefits of its humid air. Romans picked crocuses here, and even today you may be met by villagers selling bunches of the little flowers.

Archaeological digs have proven that Karain Cave was inhabited as far back as the Paleolithic Age, making it one of Turkey's oldest settlements. Later, it seems to have become a religious center for a primitive civilization. Many of the Karain finds—stone implements, bones of people and animals, and fossilized remains—are on display in Antalya Museum, but there is also a small museum on the edge of the high meadow where the cave is located. Part of the cave itself is electrically lighted and open to the public; this is a small site, however, and probably only worth visiting if you have time after seeing Termessos.

This large cave dappled with stalactites and stalagmites is tucked away in the forested hills of Yıldız Adası (Star Island), which is linked by a causeway to the mainland south of Marmaris town. To reach the cave, follow the signs off the road to a rocky path and then up a set of wooden stairs. Most of the “island” is part of Marmaris National Park and can be explored via a variety of steep but scenic hiking and biking paths.