Kovanli Islands

The Kovanli Islands are a small group of bare rocks in the channel between Kas and the Greek island of Kastellorizo, which lies about six kilometres off the Turkish shore. There is nothing on them - no beach, no landing, no shade - and that is rather the point. Everything worth seeing is underwater, where a reef, a scattering of ancient amphorae and a wall of posidonia grass make this one of the better dive stops on the Lycian coast.

The islands themselves

The Kovanli group sits off the coast of Kas, in Antalya province. The islands are uninhabited, jagged and pale, bleached where the rock rises out of the water, and they carry no sandy bays at all. The name comes from the Turkish word for beehive: hives were kept here for the honey produced from the island flowers, which is where the local Sercuven honey takes its name. Swimming here feels like swimming in open water rather than in a bay, because that is effectively what it is.

Diving at Kovanli

The reef begins at about 16 metres and drops away from there, so this is a site for certified divers rather than a first-dive location. The usual route runs around the outside of the island, drifting with the current over beds of posidonia sea grass where hornet fish hunt and red mullet gather in numbers; nudibranchs are the reason many divers come back with a camera. A canyon runs between the two main islands and is the feature most people remember.

The site also carries one of the best concentrations of underwater archaeology near Kas: amphorae, some whole and many broken, and stone and metal anchors lying where ships lost them. They are protected, and looking is all that is permitted. Sea turtles pass through in the summer months - the species nesting on this coast is the loggerhead, Caretta caretta - and encounters are a matter of luck rather than something to plan a dive around.

Kas, the nearest base

Kas is the town you will dive from, and it has been a port for a very long time. Its Lycian name was Habesos; under the Hellenistic and Roman periods it became Antiphellos, the harbour serving the inland city of Phellos, and the Seljuks and Ottomans followed. The rock-cut Lycian tombs standing in the streets and above the town are the visible remainder of that. It is also Turkey's main diving centre, with more than fifteen dive schools and around fifty sites within reach, including several deliberately sunk wrecks, a Douglas DC-3 aircraft and a 1950s cargo ship. Kovanli is best reached during a gulet cruise along the Turkey coast or on a day boat out of Kas harbour, and most crews combine it with the sunken Lycian ruins at Kekova to the east.

Anchoring and weather

The usual stop is between the two main islands, but the bottom here is rock. Rock holds an anchor badly and can trap it, so this is a settled-weather call, normally taken with a line run ashore and someone left aboard. The channel funnels wind and the sea can get up quickly; if the forecast is uncertain, dive from a day boat out of Kas instead of lying overnight.

When to go

The climate is the standard Mediterranean pattern of hot dry summers and mild wet winters. August is the hottest month, averaging a daily high of about 33C (91F), and the sea peaks near 29C (84F) in late summer. Swimming is comfortable from May to October, and visibility for divers is usually at its best in the autumn, after the summer swell has settled. Bring reef shoes: the shoreline is boulders covered in slippery weed, and there is no sand anywhere to land on.