A while ago, while I was waiting to clear the Turkish immigration and passport control at Marmaris's cruise port after travelling by catamaran from Rhodes, I saw a large poster on the wall of the harbour terminal, with a caption in Turkish that reads 'Amos: Antik Kent'. As the views of this little-known ancient ruins appear to be very attractive, I decided to take one afternoon off and visit this site from Marmaris.
In order to reach the site of Amos, it is necessary to first take a bus from Marmaris to Turunc, and either walk the 2km between Amos and Turunc, or to wait for the minibus that connects Turunc with the next village, Kumlumbuk.
As it was end of March when I visited Amos, it seems the minibus between Turunc and Kumlumbuk is available only a few times a day. So I decided to spend the next 45 minutes walking all the way from Turunc to Amos.
It turns out this 2km hike is one of the most scenic and visually impressive of all walks I had undertaken in Turkey. I was very lucky with the weather. The air was warm, fresh and the sky was so amazingly blue, every photo I took during the 45-minute walk turns out to be postcard-perfect.
The walk first goes uphill for several hundred meters, which offers some grest views of the entire village of Turunc with its picturesque harbour and attractive blue sea.
Once Turunc vanished out of sight, I could see the town of Marmaris in the distance background, surrounded by bays and coves.
As the views open up, the scenery is so unbelievably beautiful and inviting, I spent more time stopping along the route to take photos than the time I actually spent walking from Turunc to Amos. Each 100m forward on the paved road offers different angles and new perspectives for photo shots, and within half an hour I have already accumulated more than 100 photos in my memory card.
Given that I had spent a long period of time in Turkey and know this country pretty well, I can safely say this is amongst one of the most scenic stretch of coast in the whole of Turkey, if not the whole of the Eastern Mediterranean.
The small headlane in the centre of this photo is Amos. And to be honest, I am actually very surprised that until now, I have not come across any monstrous-looking holiday apartments or ugly concrete blocks of hotels yet. It seems property developers in Turkey, whose mission in life is to go out in force and destroy some of the most visually pleasing corners of Turkey's Aegean and the Mediterranean coast, have not yet 'obtained' the necessary government collaboration to invade this beautiful little paradise. I will hold my breathe and see what happens to this pristine corner of Turkey in a few years' time. Hopefully by then it will not be overrun with kitschy all-inclusive hotels and substandard restaurants.
The ferries and catamarans to/from Rhodes pass by this stretch of water on their way to/from Marmaris, but the views of this part of the Gulf are so much better when observed from higher ground than from the deck of the catamarans. I am really glad I decided to walk to Amos, as the walk enables me to take plenty of photos of this amazingly photogenic corner of the Bozburun Peninsula. It would be such a pity to miss out on all these photo opportunities had I decided to go to Amos by other means.
Copyrights@2012. All text and photos by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.
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