Town that inspired Akyaka Population: 7,700
Market day: Friday
Favourite son: Nail Çakırhan (self-taught architect)
A little piece of quintessential small-town Turkey, Ula, near Muğla, lies within spitting distance of the coastal hubbub but is completely unaffected by it. This is the town whose old Ottoman houses inspired the award-winning architect Nail Çakırhan when he set about designing a resort at Akyaka. In Ula a few imposing mansions are clustered around the main square, some of them with gazebos on their roofs and wide wooden verandahs overlooking their back gardens. Away from the centre, many simple one-storey cottages line the roads out to the fields. It’s the sort of place that rarely sees a tourist and where the locals still ride about on sit-up-and-beg bicycles.
Supposedly the market features a fish auction in the afternoons.
Transport info
There are regular buses from Mugla otogar to Ula (14km).
Local style of double gate known as a “kuzu kapısı (lamb gate)”
