“Sultan’s Place” Population: 300
Sultaniye is a pinprick of a place on the western shores of Lake Köyceğiz which would be nothing were it not for mineral waters that gush out of the ground at 39 degrees Celsius along with a set of mudbaths. Finds made in the vicinity suggest that it has been some sort of a spa resort since Roman times.
It’s a bit of a mystery why you would want to cake yourself from head to toe in mud, especially in the heat of summer, but a visit to the baths is a fixture on the boat trips from Dalyan and Köyceğiz which means that the baths can get busy. At such times the scene looks apocalyptic, a bit like something after a nuclear disaster.
More innocently, the mud-caked visitors also look rather like the living statues (soğuk heykel – cold statues in Turkish) that decorate the streets of most big cities.
The municipality-owned bathhouse is a bit of an eyesore but you can also bathe in an outdoor pool surrounded by chunks of marble possibly borrowed from a lost Temple to Leto. Or you can pay to have a skin treatment courtesy of the doctor fish, once the preserve of the Balıklı Kaplıca, near Sivas, but now to be found all over the country.
There’s a second much nicer thermal/mud bath further along the road to Kaunos although access to it by road has been blocked so that the only access is via a tour boat. Boat owners call it the Küçük Banyo (Little Bath) although officially it’s the Aqua Mia Mud Bath. There’s no concrete here, just wood and stone.
Small entry fees are charged for the use of either bath. Both have cafes selling drinks at mildly inflated prices.
Sleeping
There are a couple of simple pensions in the woodland near the baths.
Very basic accommodation in huts at the main site is usually booked up for weeks on end by Turks in search of a cure for a specific ailment in the water.
Transport info
The easiest way to get to Sultaniye from Dalyan or Köyceğiz is on one of the tour boats although you can also drop in on your way to Ekincik by car.
