Cayagzi Bay

At the mouth of the small river that once fed the harbour of Andriake, Çayağzı Bay sits a few kilometres south-west of the modern town of Demre in Antalya province. In antiquity this sheltered inlet was the port of Myra, one of the six leading cities of the Lycian League, and it handled a serious share of the grain traffic of the eastern Mediterranean. Today it is a quiet anchorage with a sandy beach, a fishing jetty and, a short walk inland, one of the best-preserved Roman harbour complexes anywhere on the Turkish coast.

The Granary of Hadrian

The dominant building at Andriake is the horreum, the state granary on the north side of the harbour entrance. Its inscription dates it to the third consulate of the emperor Hadrian, which fixes it to AD 119. The structure measures roughly 62 by 35 metres, is divided into eight chambers and could hold in the order of six thousand cubic metres of grain — a scale that only makes sense if Andriake was a transhipment point on the run between Egypt and Rome rather than a local depot. Only two comparable Roman granaries survive in similar condition: one at Patara, further west along the same coast, and one at Leptis Magna in Libya.

The harbour did far more than store grain. Excavators have exposed a harbour agora lined with shops, a bath building, a chain of cisterns and several churches. In 42 BC the Roman commander Lentulus is recorded by Appian as having broken the chain that closed the harbour mouth, which tells you the port was both defended and worth defending. Andriake also appears in the Acts of the Apostles, where Paul and his fellow prisoners were transferred here onto an Alexandrian ship bound for Italy.

A Synagogue, a Museum and Centuries of Silt

In 2009 a team from Akdeniz University led by Nevzat Çevik uncovered an apsidal synagogue on the slope above the harbour, the first archaeological evidence of a Jewish community anywhere in Lycia. The finds included a chancel screen carved with menorahs and inscribed panels, material dated to the late Roman and early Byzantine centuries, and they reshaped what was known about who actually lived and traded along this stretch of coast.

The harbour itself eventually lost the argument with its own river. Silt carried down by the stream that gives Çayağzı its Turkish name, meaning river mouth, gradually closed the basin, and the port was abandoned. The ruins were never lost, though, and after restoration the granary reopened in 2015 as the Museum of Lycian Civilizations, its eight halls each named after a major Lycian city: Myra, Patara, Xanthos, Tlos, Arykanda, Pinara, Antiphellos and Olympos.

Myra, Saint Nicholas and the Wider Bay

Demre, a few kilometres inland, holds the rest of the story. Rock tombs, Lycian inscriptions and coins show that Myra existed at least from the fifth century BC; its cliff face of house-type tombs and its Greco-Roman theatre, the largest in Lycia, are among the most photographed ancient monuments in Turkey. The Byzantine church of Saint Nicholas, built over the tomb of the fourth-century bishop of Myra who lies behind the Santa Claus tradition, stands in the middle of the modern town and remains an active pilgrimage site.

The beach beside the bay is also a recorded nesting ground for the loggerhead sea turtle, Caretta caretta. Demre is one of the nesting beaches protected under Turkish national legislation, which is why the shoreline stays undeveloped and why lights and vehicles are restricted during the nesting season. Eastwards lies the Kekova Specially Protected Area, roughly 260 square kilometres of islands, drowned shoreline and Lycian ruins, which is where most boats head next.

Anchoring at Çayağzı

For sailors the appeal is straightforward: a calm, uncrowded anchorage a short walk from major ruins, with good holding on sand in light conditions and the option of going alongside the eastern embankment near the stream when the wind gets up. Çayağzı is one of the anchorages you'll visit on a private gulet cruise in Turkey, and it works well as an overnight stop between Kas and Finike or as the jumping-off point for the Kekova run. A few simple restaurants near the jetty serve fish and standard Turkish dishes, and a taxi or dolmuş into Demre takes about ten minutes if you want to see Myra and the church the same day.