A Town called “Sabre” Population: 20,250
Old name: Ahiköy
Market days: Wednesday, Saturday
At first glance the small town of Yatağan doesn’t look very promising. Poking about in the back streets, however, it’s still possible to find the odd corner that reflects the same sort of attractive architecture as the older parts of Milas and Muğla, with fine tall chimneys and pleasing, albeit simples, double doors.
Finest of the houses is the restored Hacı Ömerler Evi, a fine two-storey property with a wide open-fronted top-floor terrace that once belonged to a local camel owner, Hacı Ömer Tekin (hence the otherwise naff model camel in the grounds). To the right of the entrance what was once the camel stable is now a conference room.
The lower storey that would once have been used for storage has been adapted to house meetings, while the two main upstairs rooms have been refurnished as they would have been in their early 20th-century heyday. One of them has a lovely pine ceiling with a huge star as its centrepiece. Both have fine plaster fireplaces.
Elsewhere in town the only other really interesting building is the single-storey old schoolhouse designed in the First National Architecture style and now used for vocational training.
Note that if you drive north towards Çine you will pass some spectacular rocky scenery, well worth pausing to explore.
The yatağan A yatağan is a single-edged curved knife or sabre that was a popular weapon in Ottoman times. It was relatively light-weight and often carried by the Janissaries. And why would a town be named after such a weapon? Well, apparently it was captured by a Selçuk blacksmith called Osman Bey whose nickname became Yatağan Baba (Father Yatağan) after he invented the weapon here. So the town may actually be named after a man rather than a knife after all.
Sleeping
Transport info
There are local buses to Yatağan from both Muğla and Milas as well as buses to Bodrum and Marmaris. The buses from Milas to Yatağan leave from just outside the köy garaj.
For the time being Yatağan otogar is still in the town centre.
Day trip destinations
Alında (Karpuzlu)
