Lake Bafa & Herakleia

Natural Park

Once a sea gulf, now a lake — its waters meet the ancient ruins of Herakleia at the foot of the Beşparmak mountains.

Lake Bafa is an extraordinary natural wonder, formed over geological time as alluvium carried by the Büyük Menderes River sealed off the mouth of an old gulf that once opened to the Aegean. In other words, where you now stand on the lakeshore was open sea thousands of years ago — which is why the ancient cities around it were once harbour towns. The eastern shore is framed by the Beşparmak Mountains (ancient Latmos), whose bare granite peaks draw a fairy-tale silhouette.

In the lakeside village of Kapıkırı, the ruins of ancient Herakleia are tucked among houses and olive groves. The remains of the Temple of Athena overlooking the water, the city walls, the bouleuterion and the rock tombs on the peninsula reaching into the lake show a rare interweaving of nature and history. In caves on the slopes of the Latmos mountains are prehistoric rock paintings thousands of years old; this is also the land of the legend of Endymion, the beautiful shepherd cast into eternal sleep. Bafa is a rich wetland for birdwatchers too, and the colours the granite and the lake take on at sunset are unforgettable.