ABOUT DALYAN

To see caunos, anchor in ekincik. The rock tombs of caunos, carved into the solid rock of the mountainside, are the most impressive remains of the ancient civilization that once dwelt here. They are dated to the fourth century B.C., but it can also be seen from inscriptions that some were reused during the Roman era. The site is best approached by small river boat available for hire in ekincik where there is a small marina.

Looking at Dalyan from the sky is like an anatomy lesson where the body is geography. The canals below you spread like green veins. “When the waters of the flood receded, the Oaxaca Valley was a swamp. A handful of mud came to life and began walking. Turtle was walking very, very slowly. His head stretched out, his eyes wide open,he moved forward, roaming to see the world that the sun had brought back to life. At a place that stank, Turtle saw Vulture eating carrion. ‘Take me to the sky,’ he said. ‘I want to meet God.’ Vulture made him repeat his request several times. Turtle poked out his head to plead, and then, because of the unbearable stench, retreated it back into his shell. ‘You have wings; take me up,’ he begged. Tired of this insistence, Vulture spread his great black wings and took off with Turtle on his back. They flew through the clouds as Turtle, his head pulled in, complained, ‘You smell revolting!’ Vulture pretended not to hear.

‘A stench of rot,’ went Turtle. He kept repeating it until that ugly bird lost patience and suddenly tilted, throwing Turtle off. God came down from the sky and put the pieces back together. On Turtle’s shell you can see the lines where the pieces joined.” That’s how a Latin American myth tells the story of the turtle. Perhaps it was this story, which I read many years ago in Eduardo Galeano’s “Creation” and which still floats in the waters of my memory—perhaps it was this story that made me want to fly over Dalyan. I wanted to fly up again like an eagle and again see the turtle where it had fallen. Of course I knew it wasn’t the Oaxaca Valley down there! And the turtle was not an ordinary land tortoise but rather Caretta caretta, the shell-backed child of the Mediterranean. And actually the turtle was only a pretext. What I wanted to see from the sky was the matchless geography of Dalyan, that miraculous place where the canals of the lake spread like veins until they meet, embrace and mingle with the sea...

DREAMY WATER

Who knows how many times I had gone through the reeds in a boat, over the blue crabs and past the nests of birds. Just once I wanted a bird’s-eye view of all this, all together. This bird’s-eye view was secured for me by a two-person aircraft called the micro-light. It could take off from a 200-meter runway, and even if its engine stopped could easily land like a deltawing. Immediately after takeoff we were met by slight winds that tested us. As we climbed higher the winds eased off, but chopping began in the blue of the Mediterranean and the green of Lake Köycegiz. A minute after we were airborne I looked down and murmured, “One day the angels looked down from the sky and saw green snakes!” And indeed the water, slowly running among the maze-like reeds, did look like snakes slithering along the ground. But the canals I was describing as snakes had, since time immemorial, been reaching the Mediterranean where fresh water mingled with salt. Dalyan is the place where Lake Köycegiz meets the Mediterranean: a dreamy piece of water.... And where it ends you find the sand dunes of Iztuzu, where the sea is rarely tame, as the waves chase each other like white-faced children, tossing off foam as they batter the shore.

SCORES OF BOATS

As we roam through the sky the rays of the sun glance off the water and dazzle me. Down below the summer visitors are riding forward in boats through the maze of reeds, which in the fall will turn a golden yellow. Flat boats are used in these waters because they don’t churn up many waves. Riding past as fish known in Turkish as ‘kefal’ jump out of the water, the passengers see the ancient tombs carved in the rock cliffs above. And they float past the fish garths, which are slowly collecting their catch in nets. Before long the Mediterranean will greet them with a mother’s embrace of waves. As they run to throw themselves into these waves, they will forget all their unhappiness, all their heartache, and all their hopelessness. The only thought in their minds will be that they are dolphins. Dolphins giving themselves up to the water in order to swim the whole length of the Mediterranean. These thoughts were passing through my mind as I contemplated the boats, when suddenly a stork flew by below us. Meanwhile the archeologists were at work in the ruins of Caunos, while on the beach tiny people played ball. The planted and plowed fields looked like daubs of paint on an artist’s palette. There are people taking mud baths who see us but don’t care, their only thought is that the mud is giving them health. As we fly over the town, the swimming pools in the gardens of the hotelslook up at us like blue eyes. Out on the Mediterranean the cruise boats have cast anchor at an island so the passengers can have a swim. This island boasts a small lighthouse, and because of a hole that resembles a cave is called ‘Delikli Kaya’, The Rock With A Hole. Divers, tempted by the extremely clear water, can pass through the hole in small rowboats.