Semizce Bay

Semizce is a pair of small coves on the pine-covered coast between Marmaris and Dalyan, just west of the entrance to Ekincik Bay in Mugla province. No road reaches the water, so the only way in is by boat, and that alone keeps the place quiet in the middle of August. Both coves lie inside the Koycegiz-Dalyan Special Environmental Protection Area.

Two coves, two very different anchorages

Semizce splits into Kucuk Semizce Koyu to the south and Buyuk Semizce Koyu to the west. In Turkish kucuk means small and buyuk big, which is how they end up on English itineraries as Little and Big Semizce.

• Buyuk Semizce is the wider and cooler of the two, backed by pine forest. The bottom is sand, holding is good, and boats anchor in 6-10 metres with a line ashore.
• Kucuk Semizce takes about two boats and no more. The water is deeper, roughly 14-18 metres, so a shore line is not optional. Gulets use it to hand passengers over to the small excursion boats that run up the Dalyan delta.

Neither cove has a beach. The shoreline is rock and reef, with narrow ledges that work for sunbathing or a barbecue, and steep hills of wild pine rising straight up behind. The reef is also what makes the snorkelling worth the swim.

Getting in: the Kizilburun problem

Coming from Marmaris you round Kizilburun, the headland that guards the coves. Rocks run out from the point and boats hit them most seasons; the standard advice is to stay roughly 150 metres off it and pass well outside. Once past Kizilburun the two inlets open up on your right. They are sheltered from the meltemi but open to the east, and when the meltemi blows hard a swell curls around Kizilburun and into the anchorage. Ekincik Cooperative monitors VHF channel 6 if you need to arrange a delta transfer.

Sitting roughly halfway between Marmaris and the Dalyan river mouth, Semizce is a classic stop on a Marmaris blue cruise itinerary, most often taken as the overnight before the early run up to Kaunos.

What is within reach

Ekincik Bay is around the headland to the east, and it is the jumping-off point for the delta: local boats work through the reed channels of the Dalyan river to the Lycian-style rock tombs and the ruins of Kaunos, then out to Iztuzu Beach. Iztuzu is the 4.5 km sand spit that separates the river from the sea and is better known as Turtle Beach, one of the main loggerhead (Caretta caretta) nesting sites in the Mediterranean, with around 300 nests a year. Parts of it are closed at night in nesting season.

Kargi is another anchorage on the same run of coast, ending in a shingle beach behind dense pine, with squirrels working the branches at the back of the bay.

Practical notes

There is nothing ashore at Semizce: no water, no fuel, no restaurant, no phone signal in parts of the southern cove. Provision in Marmaris or Ekincik. Most gulets and day boats build the coves into the Marmaris-Dalyan leg, anchoring for lunch and a swim before the delta trip, and captains working this coast know where the reef edges sit better than any chart plotter will show you.