Dalyan
A river town where boats wind through the reeds to the sea, the turtle beach and ancient Kaunos.
The Turkish name
Dalyan
At a glance
- Province
- Muğla
- District
- Ortaca
- Name means
- Fishing weir
- Nearby
- Kaunos, İztuzu Plajı
Read more
This page was written from these sources.
- Dalyan ↗Wikipedia · Checked 2026-09-23
The story
Dalyan is a neighbourhood of Ortaca on the channel that links Köyceğiz Lake with the Mediterranean. Its name means a fishing weir: mullet, bass and bream swim between the sea and the lake and are caught in weirs on the way. The delta is one of Türkiye's important reed beds, a specially protected area and a stop for migrating birds.
Life in town revolves around the river. Boats thread through the reeds down to İztuzu beach, where loggerhead turtles nest, and across the water to the ruins of Kaunos, whose rock tombs look down on the town.
Dalyan became a town in 1969. Before tourism it lived from fishing, cotton and citrus; pomegranates have since largely replaced cotton, and fishing is run by a local cooperative.
