Geography:
Towards the coast the district is mainly flat farmland, used for growing vegetables, while the inland half of Serik is forested hills and the Taurus Mountains. The district has a typical Mediterranean climate of hot, dry summers and warm, wet winters, and the natural vegetation is dry shrubs.

Serik itself is a town of 30,579, mainly ugly apartment buildings. The city of Antalya is nearby limiting the potential for retailing and commerce in Serik, but there is some light industry. There is a well-known köfte and piyaz restaurant in the town centre; the piyaz (a salad with boiled beans) is served with a sesame (tahini) sauce.

Although wealthy and only 15km from the wild amenities on the coast the people of Serik are typically conservative and traditional in outlook. The population includes many who still identify themselves as Yörük or Turkmen, descendants of the nomadic people that populated the area during the Ottoman Empire and before. These are close-knit communities shunning outside influence and new immigration, prompting some Turkish people to give it the nickname Capital of a Yörük Republic, an echo of the vivaciously preserved traditions and lifestyle. Although the district has seen a large influx of migrant workers in agriculture and tourism most business in the town is still very much in the hands of these original Turkmen people. They will defend their interests aggressively and Serik municipality is controlled by the Turkish nationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), prone to slogans like The sun even rises slowly and is sad to set upon our beautiful municipality.

History:
Two important cities here in antiquity were Sillion, a colony of the Kingdom of Pergamon, and Aspendos,one of the most important Pamphylian cities. Aspendos is situated on the point where the Kopru River meets the sea. Once an important port and a commercial centre, it had a reputation for raising the best horses on earth. The odeon, basilica, galleria and fountains are worth seeing.

The area was named Serik after a Turkish tribe that settled here, one of many waves of Turkish settlers attracted to this coast throughout history.

Tourism:
With 22 km of coastline including the busy resort town of Belek the district of Serik is a major centre of Turkey’s tourism industry, attracting 30 million visitors each year. Belek has over 30 5 star hotels and golf courses. Places of interest include the ruins of Sillion and Aspendos, the cave of Zeytinlitaş and Uçansu waterfall.

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The town of Kumluca, formerly the village of Sarıkavak, is named for its sandy soil (kum meaning sand in Turkish}, good for growing watermelons.

Geography:
The centre of the district is a plain pointing north from the Mediterranean coast and surrounded by mountains on three sides. The north of the district is hills and mountain. Summers are hot and dry, winters cool and wet as you would expect in a Mediterranean district; it never snows on the coast but there is snow on the mountains. In this climate fruit and vegetables can be grown under glass all year round and this is the mainstay of the local economy, along with orange trees, and Kumluca is a wealthy district.

Tourism:
There is 30 km of coast with many hotels and restaurants between the villages of Adrasan and Olympos, and holiday villages near the town of Mavikent. West of Mavikent there is less development but taken as a whole Kumluca is one of the fastest growing local economies in Turkey.

There are a number of important historical sites in the district of Kumluca including Olympos, Korydalla, Rhodiapolis [1], Idebessos and Gagai; of these Olympos is the largest and attracts the most visitors.

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History:
In antiquity this area was known as Isinda and was part of Pisidia, and coinage was made here. Like nearby Termessos, Isinda was a remote mountain stronghold, the people worshipped Zeus himself and even managed to resist the siege of Alexander the Great.

Pisidia later became a province of the Roman Empire, and subsequently the Eastern Roman Empire of the Byzantines. Roman/Byzantine buildings in Korkuteli include the priest’s house (Keşiş evi) and Latin inscription in the walls of the building that later became the Hamidoglu Medrese.

The area was taken from the Byzantines by the Seljuk Turks of Gıyaseddin Keyhüsrev I in 1207, and was used as a summer residence by the local Seljuk rulers. Seljuk architecture in Korkuteli includes the mosque of Sultan Alaadin and some Turkish baths and tombs.

Upon the decline of the Seljuks in the early 14th century the area became a stronghold of the Beylik of Teke and then the Hamidoglu clan of nearby Isparta. Finally the district was brought within the Ottoman Empire by Bayezid I in 1392.

Geography:
Korkuteli is an area of small plains and hills in the Bey Dağları, the western range of the Taurus Mountains, overlooking the Mediterranean sea. There are two distinct geographical areas of Korkuteli, of equal size: the lowland area nearer the coast has a hot Mediterranean climate, while the larger area of lakes higher up is cooler and less humid. The high country is covered with pine forest, while the lowland is used for agriculture; crops include grains, pulses and vegetable oil-seeds. There are trout in Korkuteli reservoir and other small lakes.

Until recently economic activity in this district was basically herding sheep and goats on the hillsides, but since the 1960s investment in irrigation and machinery has generated a thriving fruit-growing industry, including many roadside stalls selling fruit to travellers en route to the Mediterranean coast. This is turn has led to better buildings and infrastructure in the town of Korkuteli and the villages in the district. There is no industry or large-scale trading. Korkuteli is a small town of 15,000 people providing high schools and other basic infrastructure to the district.

The countryside is attractive and Antalya’s middle-classes are building holiday homes in Korkuteli, a place to escape the summer heat on the coast. The local delicacy is ‘burnt ice-cream’, made of goats-milk.

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About 2 km offshore from Kaş is the Greek island of Kastelórizo (in Turkish Meis Adásı).

Tourism:
The tourist industry is centred on the pleasant town of Kaş, but many other coastal towns and villages in the district have plenty of accommodation for visitors inluding Kalkan and Gelemiş. The district can be reached from both Antalya and Dalaman airports.

Kaş itself is a quiet pleasant town with its blue sea and narrow streets scented with jasmine flowers. There are plenty of little guest houses, quiet cafes serving home cooking, or small bars to relax after a day’s scuba diving. Kaş has an annual arts festival, jazz concerts in the Roman ampitheatre, and the Kiln Under the Sea arts collective have held underwater ceramics exhibitions here.

Kaş is one of the leading spots for diving in Turkey. There is a diving school, many places with equipment for hire and at the port local divers offer courses. If you decide to try diving in Kaş you can expect to see a beautiful array of fish and other sea creatures like octopus and possibly dolphins, and also the wrecks of some ancient ships.

History:
Although the Teke peninsula has been occupied since the stone age it seems Kaş was founded by the Lycians, and its name in Lycian language was Habesos or Habesa. It was a member of the Lycian League, and its importance during this time is confirmed by the presence of one of the richest Lycian necropolis.

The ancient Greeks later gave it the name of Antiphéllos or Antíphilos, since it was the harbor in front of the city of Phellos. During the Roman period, Antiphéllos was famous for exporting sponges and timber. Pliny the Elder refers to the town in the fifth book of his Naturalis Historia. After 395 the town became part of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine) and during the early Middle Ages was a bishop’s see - and as Antiphellus is still a titular see.
The town suffered because of Arab incursions, then was annexed (under the name of Andifli) to the Anatolian Sultanate of Rüm, led by the Seljuks. After the demise of the Seljuks, it came under the Ottomans.

In 1923, because of the Exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey after the Greco-Turkish War, the majority of the population, which was of Greek origin, left the town for Greece.

In the early 1990s tourism started booming in Kaş, with visitors mainly from the UK and Germany. This growth of tourism brought an explosion in apartment building (often without license), which is to seriously threatening the landscape and the environment. Particularly affected is the beautiful Çukurbağ Peninsula, west of the town, which now has luxury hotels built on it.

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History:
This area was once part of the antique kingdom of Pisidia, near the river Melas. It is unclear however when the district was first settled.

In the Turkish period the area was an important passage over the Taurus Mountains for traders from the Mediterranean, and was used as a summer retreat from the heat on the coast. There are the foundations of a Seljuk Turkish caravanserai in the district of Kesikbel.

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Finike is located in the south of the Teke peninsula, and the coast here is a popular tourist destination. However, Finike is best-known for its oranges, the symbol of the town.

History:
For centuries Finike, then named Phoenicus was a trading port, the main port of Limyra, the capital city of Lycia. Phoenicus was said to have been founded by Phoenicians in the 5th Century BC, and thus named after its founders.

The area has been inhabited for much longer than that, archaeologists have found evidence near the town of Elmalı showing that the Teke peninsula has been settled since 3000 BC (although on the coast nothing has been uncovered dating before 2000 BC).

Trade along the coast was established first by the Persians, who relinquished Lycia to the armies of Alexander the Great. However the coast was always vulnerable to forces from Syria, Egypt and Rhodes until it was brought within the empire of the Ancient Romans and the succeeding Byzantines.

Even then the Byzantines were threatened by the Arab armies of Islam and eventually lost the area to the Seljuk Turks in the 13th century. These were succeeded by the Ottoman Empire from 1426.

Finike today:
The local economy depends on agriculture, particularly oranges and other citrus fruits. This is supplemented by income from tourism in the summertime, although because of the lucrative orange production and the distance from Antalya Finike has not seen the large-scale tourism boom that has so radically changed the other coastal districts of Antalya. Finike is a quiet district where people buzz around on mopeds going about their daily lives. Indeed many of the visitors that Finike does attract are retired people in search of relaxation. A type of pale limestone is quarried at Limyra, and sold as a decorative building material.

The port of Finike is now a yacht marina, and has a small fishing fleet. The coast is rich in marine life including sea turtles and fish including local specialities red porgy Sparidae and grouper (Epinephelus); other fish found along the coast include leerfish Carangidae) and the more widespread Mediterranean varieties such as bluefish, sea bream, sea bass, with swordfish, sardines and others found further out to sea. However the coast suffers from overfishing and many varieties, including the porgy, are in decline.

The beaches of Finike are an important nesting ground for the caretta caretta sea turtles, and the rocky parts of the coast are used by the rare Mediterranean Monk Seal. However they are in grave danger if the protection of these species is left to local politicians such as Mahmut Esen, mayor of the town of Hasyurt in Finike, famous for his statement well I’ve lived here for 47 years and I’ve never seen a turtle.

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The town was previously a village named Eksere in the district of Akseki and was renamed Gündoğmuş in 1936.

Geography:
Gündoğmuş stands in the foothills of the mountain Geyik Dağı, in the western Taurus Mountains. The mountainside is forested and the districted is split by the Alara River. The district has a warm mediterranean climate with coolish winters due to the altitude.

Today this is an impoverished rural district as the nearby Mediterranean coast has drawn away successive generations in search of jobs in the tourist industry. The local economy depends on forestry, and money earned from seasonal jobs picking cotton or working in tourism in other parts of Turkey. There is no industry and little agriculture on this steep hillside, although grazing animals and beekeeping are important sources of income. Parts of the hillside are terraced for planting, but this is mainly vegetables for use at home.

Gündoğmuş is a small town with a high school and a boarding school for children from the most remote villages.

History:
This area has been occupied since antiquity, and the site of the modern town of Gündoğmuş was settled by the Ancient Romans.

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The old name of Gazipasa is Selinus, which mutated to Selinti in the early Turkish period.

Geography:
The district of Gazipaşa stands on a narrow strip of coast between the Mediterranean Sea and the high Taurus Mountains rising steeply behind (highest point the 2253m “Deliktaş”. The coast road is narrow and winding beyond Alanya, making Gazipaşa remote and hard to access from Antalya and even more so from further east (it is 80km to the next town Anamur but it takes two hours to drive). The remote rocky hillsides are reputedly home to large quantities of snakes, scorpions and other dangerous wildlife. There is 50km of coastline, about half of which is sandy beaches and even the rocky stretches have small coves that are also used for swimming. The beaches of Gazipaşa are used as nesting grounds by the sea turtles caretta caretta.

The local economy depends on agriculture; the land on the coastal strip is used for growing fruits and vegetables, especially citrus fruits and bananas, and in recent years a large number of glasshouses have been built to produce crops such as cucumbers, strawberries and artichokes all year round. Some grain is also grown and animals are grazed higher in the moutains. There is also some forestry and fishing but no industry. The local council is controlled by the centre-left CHP.

Gazipaşa has not experienced the tourist boom of neighbouring Alanya but there are now efforts being made to attract tourists to the district by building a yacht marina and an airport (although this cannot be completed as it is now clear that aircraft cannot safely land this close to the mountains). Tourist attractions include some sites from antiquity, caves, beaches, mountain walking, and a curious half-built airport.

History:
This is a part of the world with a long history, there is evidence of Hittite settlement going back to 2000 BC, and it is assumed that this coast was settled long before that. The Ancient Greek city of Selinus was established here on the River Kestros (today called Hacımusa by 628 BC, as part of the kingdom of Cilicia. In 197 BC the area passed into the hands of the Ancient Romans, and in the 1st century AD the Emperor Trajan died here after falling ill while journeying along the Mediterranean coast. His body was taken by his successor Hadrian for burial in Rome and for a period the town was named Traianapolis.

The Romans were succeeded by the Byzantines, who lost the area to the Seljuk Turks of `Ala’ ad-Din Kay-Qubad in 1225. During the area of the Anatolian Turkish Beyliks the coast including Selinti was controlled by the Karamanoğlu clan of Konya and was brought into the Ottoman Empire in 1472 by Gedik Ahmet Pasha, naval commander of Sultan Mehmet II. The 17th century traveller Evliya Çelebi records Selinti as a group of 26 villages, with a well-kept mosque on the seafront along with a jetty for boats to Cyprus, and green mountains behind.

Archaeological research continues and in 2004 a team from Florida State University found a small bronze statue of Pegasus dating back to 300 BC in the waters off Gazipaşa; it is now in the Museum of Alanya.

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Known for its snowdrops, Akseki is located in the western Taurus Mountains at an elevation of 1500m. The Manvagat River passes through a large valley in the centre of the district, which is otherwise mainly mountainous. Places of interest include caves, valleys and a number of high meadows. This windswept rocky mountainside is not good farmland and the local economy mostly depends on forestry and raising sheep and cattle. Many people from Akseki have migrated to Antalya but still have homes here as an escape from the summer heat on the coast. The people of Akseki have a reputation as canny traders, and some prominent businessman were brought up here including restaurateur and fruit-juice producer Ömer Duruk.

Akseki was formerly Byzantine town of Marla, Marulya, or Marulia. It was conquered by the Seljuk Turks and the Ottoman Empire along with other towns in the area.

Antalya’s Akdeniz University has a branch here training nurses, and doing some other vocational training.

With its rich architectural heritage, Akseki is a member of the Norwich-based European Association of Historic Towns and Regions.

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Formerly known as Kabalı and Emelas.

Geography:
Elmalı ıs a small plateau at the head of a long upland valley in the Beydağları range of the western Taurus Mountains, surrounded by high peaks including the 2500m Elmalı Mountain. Aside from the town of Elmalı, the district includes two other small towns (Akçay and Yuva) as well as villages. The area is watered by streams running off the mountains. Although close to the Mediterranean, Elmalı is high in the mountains and has an inland climate of cold winters and hot summers, (although still much cooler than the coast). Near to Lake Avlan there is an area of cedar forest, rare in Turkey.

History:
Excavations, by Machteld Mellink from Bryn Mawr college, of the burial mounds of Semahöyük and Müren have shown signs of copper production dating back to 2500 BC. The area was later a key town in the north of the antique province of Lycia, and the Lycian Way trade route came through here. The plain was subsequently controlled by the Ancient Romans, Byzantines, and the Seljuk Turks. The town was the headquarters of Beylik of Teke clan of Anatolian Turkish Beyliks when it was brought into the Ottoman Empire at the time of Sultan Bayezid I. It remained a key mountain stronghold in the Ottoman period and through the early years of the Turkish republic, but has declined as recent generations have left the dry mountainside for jobs on the coast or in Turkey’s major cities.

Elmalı today:
The district’s economy is largely agricultural; 37% of the land is planted. In keeping with its name, (literally apple-town) Elmalı produces 12% of the Turkey’s apples. Other fruit and vegetables are grown here too, the local leblebi (dried chick peas) is delicious.

Few tourists come to Elmalı although the town is beginning to attract visitors thanks to its rich traditional architecture and beautiful mountain surroundings; these people are either day-trippers or passing through en route to the Mediterranean coast, but do bring important income to the area. Also some residents of the coastal towns such as Finike, Fethiye or Kaş have holiday homes in Elmalı, a retreat from the summer heat on the coast. There is little industry or manufacturing in the district, only a brickworks, flour and feed mills, and a fruit juice plant.

Most people live in cottages and wooden houses, but there are some apartment buildings in Elmalı itself, a small town of 14,500 people with banks and other essential services. The infrastructure in the villages is basically little more than telephones, and elementary schools. Each village used to have a traditional guest house (köy evi) but many are in disrepair today.

The cuisine is typical of Anatolia, you will find ladies grilling the flat bread gözleme by the roadside, but Elmalı is known for its various ways of using sesame, including baked beans served with a lemon and sesame relish (Antalya usulu piyaz). Another local speciality is a goats milk ice-cream. And of course one of the most delicious things in Elmalı is the cool mountain spring water. Or a glass of tea made with it.

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