Kadirga Bay

Kadirga Bay is a west-facing inlet on the western shore of the Gulf of Marmaris, tucked in just north of Kadirga Point and its lighthouse, on the run of coast that drops south from Marmaris through Icmeler and Turunc toward the Bozburun peninsula. It lies immediately south of Kumlubuk beach, indented into steep hillsides covered in pine and maquis, and the combination of very clear water and an easy approach has made it one of the most familiar names on the day-boat and blue cruise circuit out of Marmaris.

What the Name Means

The Turkish word kadirga means galley, the long oar-driven warship that dominated Mediterranean naval fighting through the Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman centuries, and the type of vessel Suleiman the Magnificent's fleet relied on when Marmaris served as its assembly point for the 1522 campaign against Rhodes. Whether galleys were actually built, repaired or sheltered in this particular bay is not something the historical record settles, and the name may equally refer to the shape of the headland. The surrounding coast is genuinely old ground, however: the Marmaris headland itself was the Carian harbour town of Physkos, and the hills above the next bay to the north carry the ruins of Amos.

Anchoring and Conditions

The mouth of the bay is clean and straightforward. A small rock breaks the surface on the northern side of the entrance, but there is around 9 metres of water just north of it and it presents no real obstruction. Depths are considerable at the entrance and shoal gradually toward the western shore, where boats commonly anchor in 10 to 15 metres and lie to the anchor well off the beach. In the southern part of the bay there are two well-liked spots where crews drop the hook in about 10 metres and run a line ashore to the pine trees, a useful habit here because the mixed, partly rocky bottom can make anchors awkward to break out again.

The bay is sheltered from the summer meltemi and from southerly winds, but it is open to the southeast and to the poyraz, the northeasterly. That, together with the complete absence of facilities ashore, means it is treated as a lunch and swimming stop rather than an overnight berth. It also sits squarely in the cruising ground of the Marmaris tripper boats, so between roughly 11:00 and 16:00 it can be crowded, while outside those hours it is peaceful. As a classic stop on a Marmaris blue cruise itinerary, Kadirga is usually given a couple of hours before boats move on to Kumlubuk or back toward Turunc.

Swimming, Snorkelling and Nearby Ruins

The water here is famously clear and noticeably cool, and the seabed, a mix of sand, gravel, rock and patches of Posidonia oceanica seagrass, gives snorkellers plenty to look at close in to the shore. The cliffs at the southeastern end of the bay drop straight into deep water and are a long-standing favourite for jumping in. Loggerhead turtles pass along this stretch of coast and are occasionally seen from the water, though nothing about a sighting is guaranteed.

Kumlubuk, the next bay north, is a long curving beach of darker sand with a cluster of well-regarded restaurants; it shelves gently to about 10 metres over sand and offers all-round shelter except from the east. On the hill of Asarcik above its northwestern corner stand the ruins of Amos, a Doric settlement founded from Rhodes as part of the Rhodian Peraea, with traces of occupation going back to the 6th century BC. Inside its circuit wall are a theatre that seated roughly 1,300 people and a small temple, probably of Apollo, measuring about 6.8 by 13.8 metres. Since there are no shops, water points or fuel at Kadirga itself, anything needed has to come aboard beforehand.