The Errant Æsthete

A fascinating story of shipwrecks and sunken treasure off Turkey’s Lycian Coast beckoning to divers the world over out of the pages of Bloomberg News today.

“Gripping the broken hull of the “Duchess of York,” a 19th-century steamer, I struggle with a dilemma — do I swim further down into one of the best wrecks along the Turkish coast or heed my dive computer’s warning that I am running out of time?

Decisions, decisions. The display on my wrist shows I must start to ascend within two minutes. I peer underneath and around the corner of the jagged metal, the portholes and railings of the smashed vessel easy to identify in the clear water. One minute. I desperately want to look at the shipwreck a little longer. Zero minutes.”

I recall the advice given to me before the dive: Resist the temptation to descend to the deepest parts of the wreck and for goodness sake keep an eye on your air. Reluctantly, I let go and begin my ascent, to be suddenly surrounded by a shoal of 30 or more, two-foot-long, amber-striped fish.

“You were lucky,” said Ender, my guide, in the speedboat on the way back to the local town of Kalkan. “No current, excellent visibility, and all those amberjack swimming around us.”

The “Duchess of York” was identified when the ship’s bell was found, though the parts of the wreck I visited may have belonged to different vessels, local divers said — testament to a coastline that has been devouring vessels for at least 3,300 years. History, warm waters and sunshine are attracting adventure seekers to the region, which is about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) from the current political strife with Kurdish rebels.

Winding Road

Half an hour from Kalkan by local minibus, or dolmus, is the small coastal town of Kas (pronounced “cash”), which I had made my base. The winding road hugged the rocky coastline, the turquoise sea dotted with islands on one side, the Taurus Mountains on the other.

This is the heart of ancient Lycia, ally of Troy in Homer’s “Iliad,” whose citizens built tombs that can still be seen, carved into the cliff face, or dotted along the “Lycian Way,” a marked coastal footpath that stretches about 500 kilometers (310 miles).

“Lycia is practically an open-air museum,” said archaeologist Ilhan Aksit in his book “The Land of Light, Lycia.” Avid hikers come to Turkey to walk the entire length of the trail. A two-hour stretch from Kas was enough for me.

After a secluded cove or two, countless olive trees and glorious views across the mountains and sea all to myself, I came to a steep descent, no wider than my feet. Clinging to the rock face and trying not to look down at the sheer drop to the sea, I began to think maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to meet a fellow hiker.

I reached the bay below and celebrated with a dip in the sea before catching a boat back to Kas, quietly proud of my success. When a Turkish friend described my path that evening as “fairly gentle,” I consoled myself that I was unaccustomed to the heat.

Warm Water

The temperature hovered around 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in October. Even the water was a pleasant surprise. As someone who has done most of her diving in tropical southeast Asia, the 26 degrees of this part of the Mediterranean, visibility as far as 40 meters and abundant marine life were a world away from my current home in Brussels.

At Besmi Adasi, a short boat trip from Kas’s harbor, a mass of tiny silver fish darted to and fro, glinting like a sheet of glass in the sun’s rays. Around them, dozens of tuna hunted for a mid-morning snack. Sea urchins, worm cucumbers and featherstars clung to rocky outcrops below, while barracuda, jacks and trumpetfish all came out to play.

“Now that’s my type of diving!” said one holidaymaker, a qualified diving instructor, as she got back on the boat and was handed the customary post-dive glass of Turkish tea.

Ancient Trashyard

Her group had seen amphora strewn on the seabed and a turtle, both of which I was to meet later in the week. Little in the underwater world beats quietly finning next to a turtle as it glides along, propelled by its front flippers. In Turkey, rubbish can come a close second, though.

Around Kas, the seabed is what one local diver called a “trashyard for the ancient people.” I saw tall, slender storage jars, some firmly embedded into the rock. While many of the seabed objects are of limited interest to archaeologists, now and then, pieces of much greater value come to light.

In 1982, at Uluburun near Kas, a bronze-age ship was discovered together with a cargo of copper ingots. Egyptian ebony logs, the earliest known intact ingots of glass, Cypriot ceramics, Canaanite jewelry and bronze tools were all excavated, according to the Institute of Nautical Archaeology.

The original 14th-century B.C. shipwreck is now housed in the Underwater Archaeology Museum down the coast in Bodrum. Still, two replicas were made, one of which was sunk last year in Kas as part of a new Underwater Archaeology Park, a tourist attraction and training ground.

Sunken City

Some underwater sites are so sensitive, they are off limits to divers. To see the partially submerged city of Kekova, I took a sea kayak. You need calm water and good eyesight to see the sunken walls that date back 2,000 years, before earthquakes destroyed the city. Many structures though are still above the surface — steps of ancient houses eerily descending into the water, tops of buildings with square grooves to support long-vanished beams.

Kas, about 2.5 hours drive from the airport at Dalaman or 3.5 hours from Antalya, is also a center for other outdoor sports, including canyoning, mountain-biking and paragliding.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of ways to relax after the exertion, be it a poolside dinner against a backdrop of bougainvillea and pomegranate trees, a visit to the Turkish baths or an afternoon game of backgammon in a local cafe.

As I sat in the back garden of a Turkish home on my last evening, the scent of jasmine in the air and a chilled Efes beer in my hand, I started to plan my return.

Kalkan Dive Centre does one-day dive trips including the “Duchess of York” for 40 euros ($58) per person. BT adventure & diving and Dragoman run dive trips from Kas.

(Anna Jenkinson writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)