Kayaköy Ghost Village (Karmylassos) and the Hike to Ölüdeniz

Cradled in a quiet, fertile valley eight kilometres south of Fethiye harbour (20 minutes by direct dolmuş from Fethiye or 10 minutes from Hisarönü), Kayaköy (known in Greek until 1923 as Levissi and built over ancient Lycian Karmylassos) is one of the most poignant historical sites in the Mediterranean. Until the end of the First World War, a prosperous community of Greek Orthodox craftsmen and farmers lived in the hillside stone town while Turkish Muslim neighbours farmed the flat valley floor below, famously sharing wedding celebrations and music. Following the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the compulsory population exchange between Greece and Turkey, Levissi's 6,500 Greek residents departed for Greece, while the Muslim families relocated here from Western Thrace preferred to build homes on the flat farmland in the valley rather than in the steep stone houses, leaving more than 400 two-storey stone houses, two monumental churches, 14 chapels, schools and cisterns untouched as an open-air museum of peace and memory (and the direct inspiration for Louis de Bernières's novel Birds Without Wings).

Walking the Cobblestone Lanes of Kayaköy (Allow 90 Minutes)

Enter through one of the two ticket kiosks at the foot of the hill (Museum Pass Turkey is valid) and follow the worn stone steps upward:

• Ingenious Terrace Architecture: notice how every single house (measuring roughly 50 square metres) was engineered on the steep limestone slope so that no house ever blocked the winter sunlight or valley view of the house behind it, and how terracotta roof gutters channelled every drop of rainwater into a personal plastered underground cistern beneath each courtyard.
• The Lower Church (Panayia Pyrgiotissa, 1888) and Upper Church (Taxiarches): decorated with black-and-white pebble mosaic courtyards (podima), faded blue-and-ochre interior wall frescoes and carved stone iconostasis arches.
• The Watchtower Chapel at the Crest: climb all the way to the tiny whitewashed chapel on the rocky ridge at the top of the village for a sweeping view over the entire ghost town on one side and the pine forests dropping down to the sea on the other.

Hiking the Lycian Trail from Kayaköy to Ölüdeniz Lagoon (6 km, ~1.5 to 2 hours)

Right beside the ticket booth near the Upper Church, red-and-white painted trail blazes mark a sweeping coastal spur of the Lycian Way. The stone mule path climbs gently for 30 minutes through fragrant pine woods to a mountain saddle where the neon-blue Ölüdeniz Blue Lagoon suddenly bursts into view 300 metres directly below your feet, then switchbacks down through the trees to finish right behind the inner lagoon beaches (or take the shorter 45-minute flatter forest trail down to secluded Soğuksu / Cold Water Bay, where icy freshwater springs bubble up under the sea beside a hillside restaurant).