Kekova Island

Kekova Island, to the west of Antalya, makes an ideal day trip for travelers looking for a combination of sunshine, swimming, and exploring fascinating historical ruins. Before the Ottomans, Byzantines, or Romans, this remote corner of Turkey was home to the world's first democratic union, and its remains now sit beneath the waves. Where the Lycian civilization was a peaceful union of states, dating back to about 2000 BC, and it included the maritime trading city "Simena", which was exposed in the second century AD to a series of violent earthquakes that sank it under the waves, and today it is still possible to see the effects of the city clearly Just a few meters deep in the clear waters of the Mediterranean Sea, in 1990 the Turkish government declared Kekova Island and the surrounding area a Specially Protected Area, and charter boats were allowed to go over it at a slow pace.