Karemlik Bay

Karemlik Bay sits on the Demre coastline in Antalya Province, on the stretch between the town and the Kekova region where the Demre plain runs out into the sea. It lies across the water from Cayagzi, the small harbour built on the site of ancient Andriake, and the two are almost always seen together: the day boats for Kekova leave from Cayagzi, and Karemlik is where most of them stop first, because it is the reliable place on this coast to see loggerhead turtles.

Cayagzi and Andriake

The sandy beach beside the harbour goes by two names, Cayagzi and Andriake, and both are literal. Cayagzi means river mouth, which is what it is; Andriake was the port of Myra, the Lycian city two kilometres inland at modern Demre, and it stood at the mouth of the same river.

This was not a minor harbour. Trajan used it as a base for campaigns to the east, and on the north side of the entrance stand the remains of a very large Roman granary, the horrea, whose inscription dates it to Hadrian's third consulate in AD 119. A state grain store of that size means Andriake was a working link in the shipping run that carried Egyptian grain to Rome, and that fact explains the site's most quoted moment: in Acts 27, Paul and his fellow prisoners are transferred at Myra's port onto an Alexandrian ship bound for Italy, exactly the traffic the granary was built to serve. Ruins of churches and of a synagogue survive nearby, and the granary now houses the Museum of Lycian Civilizations. The harbour silted up in later centuries, which is why the ancient quay lines now sit back from the water.

The Turtles

The turtles at Karemlik are loggerheads, Caretta caretta. Two corrections are worth making to what usually gets said about them. There are seven living sea turtle species worldwide, not eight, and only three of them occur in the Mediterranean: the loggerhead and the green turtle, both of which nest here, and the leatherback, which visits but has never been recorded nesting in this sea.

Demre is one of the twenty-one sea turtle nesting beaches formally identified and protected in Turkey under national legislation. Females come ashore to nest from May into August, and the hatchlings emerge from roughly July onwards, with the last nests running into autumn. That protection carries obligations for anyone on the beach in season: no digging, no vehicles, no beach furniture driven into the sand, and no torches or phone lights after dark, since artificial light draws hatchlings inland instead of towards the sea. If you find a nest marked with a cage or stakes, leave a wide berth.

Away from the sand, loggerheads are regularly seen in the water around the fishing boats at Cayagzi and in the shallows of the bay, and the seagrass and weed cover on the bottom here is a large part of why they stay.

Anchoring and Access

The bay is open to the prevailing wind and should be treated as a fair-weather stop. Small boats can work into a narrow inlet at the side of the bay for better protection and take a line ashore; larger vessels are usually better off going round to Andriake harbour on the southeast side, which sits behind a modern breakwater and has restaurants and basic facilities on the quay.

There is no road down to the bay itself, so it is best reached during a gulet cruise along the Turkey coast, or on foot: the Lycian Way runs through here, connecting Karemlik with Kapakli over the ridge to the east. Anyone anchoring should check the forecast first rather than the calendar, because a bay with this much exposure changes character quickly when the wind gets up.

Swimming and Season

The shoreline is sand and shelves gently, which makes it easy going for families, and the water is clear enough for snorkelling over the vegetated bottom. The sea off this coast peaks at about 28C to 29C in July and August and stays comfortable from June until well into October; May is warm on shore but the water is still around 21C. July and August also bring the heaviest day-boat traffic through the bay, so an early start makes a noticeable difference.