Kissebuku

Kissebükü lies on the northern shore of the Gulf of Gökova, in the Mazı district of Bodrum, a deep and unusually well-sheltered inlet that most visitors reach by sea rather than by road. Its name is thought to come from the Turkish word for church, "kilise," a nod to the ruins scattered along its shore, and the bay sits at what Turkish archaeologists describe as the coastal meeting point between the territories of the ancient cities of Keramos and Halikarnassos, both part of the Carian world that once ruled this coastline. Calm, deep and green, it has offered sailors shelter for centuries.

Anastasiopolis, the late antique city on the shore

On the slope above the anchorage lie the remains of Anastasiopolis, the settlement that gives Kissebükü its archaeological weight. Excavation has established that the city was founded in the mid-fifth century AD and abandoned in the early seventh century, when Arab raids emptied coastal towns all along this shoreline. What survives is therefore an almost undisturbed snapshot of an Early Byzantine harbour town, sitting in a first-degree archaeological protected zone roughly 800 metres back from the water.

Digging began at the site in 2019 under Assoc. Prof. Hatice Özyurt Özcan of Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University's archaeology department. Work so far has brought to light three churches, a baptistery, two baths, houses, public and commercial buildings, harbour structures, a tower, cisterns and monumental tombs. In 2023 the plot containing the city's religious centre was expropriated and folded into the dig, and excavation of the baptistery and its adjoining church has continued since under Türkiye's "Legacy for the Future" heritage programme. Chapel walls, cistern mouths and scattered building stone still stand among olive and oleander trees close to the shoreline, which is what earns the bay its open-air museum reputation.

The anchorage and the water

The bay is wide enough to hold a good number of boats yet enclosed enough to stay calm in most conditions, which is why it has long featured on Blue Cruise itineraries along this coast. The shoreline is pebble rather than sand, and the water is famously clear, clear enough that fish are visible from the surface, so snorkelling and free diving are the usual reasons people go in. There are no shops, restaurants or hotels anywhere near the bay, and none are likely to appear: the whole of Gökova has been a Special Environmental Protection Area since 1988, declared by cabinet decree that June, and its marine zone is today the largest marine protected area in Turkey, with no-fishing zones that shelter Mediterranean monk seals and sandbar sharks.

Visiting Kissebükü on a charter

Reaching the bay overland means a slow crawl along rough, hilly track, which is a large part of why it stays quiet. Arriving by water is easier, and it lets you see the site the way it was meant to be seen, from the harbour it was built to serve. Camping is permitted ashore for anyone who wants to stay, but everything has to be carried in. The anchorage remains a popular stop for gulet charter guests exploring Bodrum, who drop anchor overnight to see both the ruins ashore and the pine-covered hills around the bay. It is an increasingly rare combination on the Bodrum peninsula: an archaeological site of real substance, an empty pebble beach and protected water, all within the same cove.