Bencik Bay

Bencik is a long, narrow inlet at the eastern end of the Datca peninsula, in Mugla province. It cuts inland from the Gulf of Hisaronu towards the point where the peninsula nearly stops being a peninsula: at Balikasiran, the strip of land between the head of the bay and the Gulf of Gokova on the other side is less than a kilometre across. The name of that neck means roughly the place where fish jump over.

Location and Access

Roads reach the isthmus, but not the bay. The D400 between Marmaris and Datca crosses the neck at Balikasiran, about 45 km from Marmaris and an hour's drive, and the road there looks down on both gulfs at once. A rough side track drops to a small summer housing site on one shore of the inlet. The bay itself has steep wooded sides and no coast road, and it is best reached during a gulet cruise along the Turkey coast, which is why it stays quiet even in August while the resorts an hour away do not.

Coming In by Sea

The inlet runs inland roughly 1.5 nautical miles and bends as it goes, so the head is out of sight from the entrance. Give the headlands a wide berth on the way in, since there are shoals and rocks close to the points. Charts show 12 to 25 metres over much of the inlet, and most boats carry on to the shallower ground near the head, anchoring in around 6 to 10 metres and running a long line ashore to a tree; in a bay this narrow that is what stops a boat swinging into its neighbour. The bottom is mud and weed and holds well, although the water is murky enough that you will not see the anchor set.

There is no jetty, no fuel and no restaurant. A small shop has operated at the summer housing site, but nobody should plan on provisioning here.

The Canal the Knidians Never Finished

Herodotus records what happened at this isthmus. Around 540 BC, as the Persian general Harpagus worked his way through Caria, the people of Knidos, whose city stood at the far western tip of the same peninsula, began cutting through the neck to turn their whole territory into an island. The work went badly. Herodotus writes that the men breaking the rock were being injured by flying splinters more often than seemed natural, particularly about the eyes, so Knidos sent to Delphi to ask what was wrong. The oracle told them to stop: had Zeus wanted an island there, he would have made one. They abandoned the cut and surrendered to Harpagus without a fight. Herodotus gives the width of the isthmus as five stades, a little under a kilometre.

Traces of the attempt are still pointed out on the ground at Balikasiran, and the story explains why a bay with no village and no road has a place in a fifth-century BC history.

The Bay Today

Pine forest comes down to the waterline on both sides, and the slopes are steep enough that there is very little flat shore anywhere in the inlet. That shape is the point: the surrounding ridges cut off the prevailing meltemi, so the water inside stays flat while the Gulf of Hisaronu outside is working. Swimming is straight off the boat rather than off a beach, and the depth keeps the water cooler than in the shallow bays further east.

The one walk worth doing from the anchorage is up to the isthmus itself, where you can stand on the road and see the Gulf of Gokova on one side and the water you are anchored in on the other. Otherwise there are forest tracks on the slopes and no marked trails.

Getting There

• By road: the D400 from Marmaris towards Datca, about 45 km to Balikasiran. The drive takes roughly an hour and the last part runs along the spine of the peninsula.
• By bus: buses and minibuses between Marmaris and Datca use the same road and pass the isthmus, so it is possible to be dropped at Balikasiran, but there is no service down to the water.
• By boat: the usual approach. Bencik sits on the Hisaronu circuit between Marmaris, Selimiye and Bozburun, and it is a common overnight stop on the way west towards Datca and Knidos.