About Kalkan

Kalkan is a small harbour town within the Kaş district of Antalya Province, on Turkey's Turquoise Coast. The 2022 census recorded a population of around 3,900 for the town itself, a fraction of the roughly 64,000 people living across the wider Kaş district. Whitewashed stone houses climb the hillside above its horseshoe-shaped harbour, a legacy of the Greek fishing community that built the town roughly 150 to 200 years ago.

From Kalamaki to Kalkan

Before it took its current name, the settlement was known as Kalamaki, founded by Greek Orthodox residents, many with trading ties to the nearby island of Kastellorizo (Meis). Following the 1923 population exchange mandated by the Treaty of Lausanne, the town's Greek community left for Greece — many resettling in a new community of the same name near Athens — and Turkish migrants from the Greek mainland and islands took their place. The town was renamed Kalkan; its steep, narrow streets and the characteristic white-painted houses of the old quarter still reflect the building style of its original Greek founders. For much of the 20th century Kalkan functioned as a working port, a role that faded once the coastal road to Fethiye opened and diverted trade, before the harbour found new life through tourism from the 1980s onward.

Ancient Neighbours

Kalkan sits within easy reach of several major Lycian sites. Patara, about 16 kilometres away, was a leading member and at times capital of the Lycian League, and tradition holds that Saint Nicholas — later bishop of Myra — was born there, though no historical record confirms the claim. Further inland, Xanthos and its associated sanctuary at Letoon have been jointly inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1988; a trilingual inscription found at Letoon, carved in Lycian, Greek and Aramaic, proved central to modern scholars' decipherment of the Lycian language.

Coast and Beaches

The coastline around Kalkan includes some of the region's best-known beaches. Kaputaş, roughly halfway between Kalkan and Kaş at the mouth of a narrow gorge, is reached by a long flight of steps from the coast road and has repeatedly featured on international best-beach lists. Patara Beach, protected since 1990 under the Barcelona Convention as a nesting site for loggerhead sea turtles, stretches for several kilometres of largely undeveloped sand, with its exact length disputed between roughly 12 and 18 kilometres depending on the source.

Kalkan's small, deep harbour — often described as one of the few sheltered anchorages along the stretch of coast between Kaş and Fethiye — has made it a natural stop for boats working this part of the coastline, and which is why so many visitors explore Kalkan by private gulet charter, combining a night in the old town with day trips to Patara, Kaputaş and the ruins further inland.