Meteor Bay

Meteor Bay is a small inlet on Karaada, the island lying just off Bodrum at the mouth of its gulf. It takes its name from a deep, near-circular hole in the seabed, the Meteor Pit in local usage, which sits in water otherwise barely deep enough to stand in. Nobody has ever confirmed the impact story behind the name, but the hole itself is real enough, and it has turned a minor cove into one of the more recognisable stops on the Bodrum boat circuit.

The Pit Itself

The bay around the pit is shallow, a metre or two at most, over rock rather than sand. The pit drops away sharply to something in the region of 40 metres, and because the water here is exceptionally clear the change is obvious from the surface: pale rock, then a hard-edged circle of deep blue. Depth figures quoted locally vary quite a bit, and no geological survey has ever established that a meteorite made it, so the name is best treated as tradition rather than science.

What people actually come to do is jump. The rocks around the rim allow leaps straight into the deep section, which is why the spot draws a steady trickle of small boats through the summer. Away from the pit the inlet is well sheltered, which keeps the surface still and the visibility good even when there is a breeze blowing across the gulf outside. Because the cove is tiny and largely rock-bound, most boats stop here for a swim rather than settling in for the afternoon.

Karaada, the Island Around It

Karaada, meaning Black Island, is the largest island off the Bodrum coast, a volcanic lump roughly five kilometres out from Bodrum harbour. Its better-known attraction lies on the northern side, where a hot spring emerges inside a large cave at the water's edge, collects in a pool and then runs into the sea. The water comes out at about 33 degrees Celsius, with a pH of 6.3, and belongs to the sodium chloride group of mineral waters, carrying small amounts of fluoride, bromide, sulphate, calcium, magnesium and carbon dioxide. It has long been used for bathing and drinking, and is credited locally with easing rheumatic complaints and skin conditions.

The mud around the spring is the part that ends up in photographs. Visitors smear it on, let it dry, then rinse off in the sea, and the island trades on a story that the same mud was once shipped to Cleopatra. There is no evidence for that whatsoever, but it is why the place is still marketed as a beauty spring.

A Surprisingly Contested Rock

For its size, Karaada has had an unusually complicated ownership history. It was known as Arkos before the Ottoman period, passed to the Knights of Rhodes along with Bodrum itself, and was absorbed into Ottoman territory in the 16th century. Much later it was assigned to Italy in 1919, and its status remained unresolved amid the ambiguities of the Treaty of Lausanne until the Convention between Italy and Turkey, signed in Ankara on 4 January 1932, settled sovereignty over the disputed islets and confirmed that Kara Ada, in the Bay of Bodrum, belonged to Turkey.

Getting to Meteor Bay

There is no road to Meteor Bay, no village behind it and no path in from elsewhere on Karaada, so the inlet really only exists as a stop on a boat itinerary. Day boats out of Bodrum and Gumbet include it alongside the thermal cave and the island's other coves, and it is also one of the anchorages you'll visit on a private gulet charter from Bodrum that works its way round Karaada before heading further into the gulf. Either way, expect a short stop: long enough to swim, to jump if you feel like it, and to look straight down into the pit before moving on.