Gemiler Island (Gemiler Adası)

Mediterranean, Turkey 1 tours visit here

Gemiler Island, also called St Nicholas Island, is a small uninhabited island in the Gulf of Fethiye on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, lying just offshore between Fethiye and Oludeniz. Its Turkish name means "island of ships", after the sheltered channel between it and the mainland where vessels have long anchored. It holds one of the more extensive Byzantine island settlements on this coast: the remains of four churches terraced across the slopes, along with chapels, houses, cisterns and rock-cut tombs, and surviving fragments of mosaic flooring. The most distinctive structure is a long vaulted processional walkway climbing from the shoreline to the church near the summit. The island is traditionally linked to Saint Nicholas of Myra and was a stop for early Christian pilgrims on the sea route along the Lycian coast. Gemiler is reachable only by boat and is usually visited on day cruises from Fethiye or Oludeniz, or on gulet routes along the Turquoise Coast. Walking up through the ruins and back takes roughly an hour, on steep, stony and largely unshaded paths. Boat traffic concentrates in the warmer months, and late afternoon draws the most vessels into the channel for sunset.