The Sea of Marmara in the north-west of Anatolia is an inland sea of vital strategic importance as the link between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean via the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits. It covers an area of 11,350sq km and in places reaches a depth of 1,370m. The area around it tends to get overlooked by visitors on tight itineraries but for those on repeat visits and those living in İstanbul this is a part of the country which offers lots of potential for day or weekend trips to towns and villages that have little to do with tourism.
“Marmara” is essentially the shoreline of the Sea of Marmara and its hinterland. Its most obvious drawcard is Bursa, which is sometimes visited by people with an interest in early Ottoman history and spa baths or by walkers with their eyes set on Uludağ (the Great Mountain). Some also make it to İznik which played an important role in early Christian history. Fewer, however, discover the small spa resort of Termal, near Yalova; Mudanya and Trilye, pleasant waterside towns with Ottoman cores; or the half-forgotten resort at Erdek.
Istanbul itself is on the Sea of Marmara which is visible from many a hotel room in areas like Cankurtaran. West of the city past the huge prison at Silivri a string of seaside resorts filled with second-home communities line the Thracian shore of the Sea right out to Şarköy with its wineries. Well known for its rakı, Tekirdağ is the one large town here.
To the south of the Sea of Marmara are three smallish lakes that are popular haunts for bird-watchers: Kuş Gölü (Manyas Gölü), Ulubat Gölü and İznik Gölü. Ulubat Gölü in particular has attracted attention since the touching story of the friendship between a stork named Yaren and a fisherman named Adem hit the news. Kuş Gölü is hemmed in between Bandırma, Gönen and Manyas but is the site of a Kuş Cenneti Milli Parkı (Bird Paradise National Park).
In 1740 a group of Don Cossacks who had revolted against Peter the Great arrived to settle on the shores of Maynas Gölü, first in Eski Kazaklar (Kocagöl) on the south side of the lake and later in Yeni Kazaklar on the north. However, in 1927 most of them returned to Russia.
Transport info
Fast ferries from İstanbul’s Yenikapı run to Güzelyalı which offers bus connections to Bursa, Mudanya and Trilye. They also serve Yalova where you can board local buses to Termal, Erdek and İznik.
Buses from İstanbul’s Esenler terminal also run straight to many destinations in Marmara. A cable-car from the Bursa outskirts provides access to Uludağ.
Where to go
Bursa and Cumalıkızık
The capital of the first sultans Osman and Orhan, Bursa is often thought of as the cradle of the Ottoman Empire. Today it’s a self-confident industrial city with a large student population that seems to have everything going for it: a tree-filled location at the foot of Uludağ (2543m), plenty of thermal water to supply a network of public hamams (Turkish baths) and private hotel pools, a lively covered market encompassing a chain of recently-restored hans, several excellent museums, a string of early Ottoman mosques and a pleasant, easily overlooked castle quarter full of old Ottoman houses. Finest of the boutique hotels is the town centre Kitap Evi although the nearby Safran Otel is cheaper.
While here do what the locals do and head out to the mini-Safranbolu of Cumalıkızık for full-on Sunday brunch around a samovar at the Mavi Boncuk pension.
The restoration of the ruined church of Hagia Sophia, where the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787 ruled that icons should be permissible in churches, was initially controversial although the First Ecumenical Council of 325 that drew up the Creed that has formed the basis for the Christian faith ever since was held in the Emperor Constantine’s palace of which only scant traces remain. Otherwise, İznik is a delightful tree-lined small town set on a peaceful lake. Like Constantinople, it was, in its heyday, a walled city and long stretches of the walls still survive today. Tile enthusiasts might like to gaze on the excavated remains of kilns that once produced the famous tiles that line İstanbul’s Sultanahmet (Blue) Mosque. Afterwards they can visit the İznik Foundation which played a big part in reviving interest in İznik tile production.
Lovers of the Turkish bath should speed across the Sea of Marmara to spend a day luxuriating in wooded Termal which offers a range of baths to suit all tastes (private bathing, public pools, single-sex baths, mixed baths) and was a popular retreat for Atatürk who planted an arboretum here. There are a couple of hotels on-site although most people just visit for the day.
The small port town of Mudanya and neighbouring Trilye (Zeytinbağı) have both been rediscovered which means that their extensive stock of Ottoman houses (including, in Mudanya’s case, a few İstanbul-style yalıs) is being rapidly restored, with new hotels opening all the time. Trilye also boasts a trio of old Byzantine churches, one of them (Hagios Stephanos) later turned into a mosque, as well as the Taş Mektep, a monastery turned outsize schoolhouse that dominates the town centre.
Mudanya’s one official tourist attraction is the Mütareke Evi (Armistice House), where a treaty signed in 1922 effectively gave birth to modern Turkey. Stay the night in a converted railway station (Mudanya) or old ferry (Güzelyalı) for a truly unique experience.
Erdek’s day in the sun was in the 1960s when this was a popular place for people to come for holidays before Bodrum and Marmaris stole its thunder. Today the hotels that dot the palm-lined promenade are showing their age. But, oh, the beautiful Marmara sunsets. Enough to make up for a few carpet stains, surely.
To the south of the Sea of Marmara the cluster of Marmara Islands look promising. Unfortunately, though, they have been developed for mass-market Turkish tourism which means a great deal of concrete ugliness. Mountainous Marmara is preferable to pancake-flat Avşa.
Once a Roman town to compete in importance with Ephesus, Cyzikus has not been treated as kindly by fate which has left it one of Turkey’s least exciting archeological sites. The sparse remains of a temple to Hadrian are hardly worth getting out of the bus to Erdek for.
True enthusiasts for Byzantine architecture might like to drop into these two smaller settlements on the southern shore of the Sea of Marmara where once fine churches stand in differing degrees of ruination.
