Kaputaş Beach

Beaches & CovesAntalya,Türkiye

A shingle cove at the mouth of a gorge on Türkiye's Lycian coast, reached by 187 steps, its turquoise shallows kept cold by fresh springs.

September·Peaking now

Jul–Sep

High summer: everything is open and the sea is at its warmest, climbing to about 28°C in August, though the karst springs keep this cove startlingly cool for the coast. The car park fills by mid-morning — come before nine or after five.

Year-round The cleft between the two rock walls, the 187 steps, the pale limestone seabed and the cold freshwater springs seeping up through the shingle are here every day of the year.

Kaputaş is a cove of white shingle wedged into the mouth of a gorge on the Lycian coast of Türkiye, and the only way down to it is 187 steps. They drop from the coast road in long switchbacks, opening more of the cove at each turn, until the last flight lands you on warm pebbles. Halfway down, the two rock walls close over the stair like a gate. The road itself gives the frame everyone knows. From the bridge that crosses the ravine, the beach sits between those walls — the only place you see the thing entire. Nothing is built on the shingle and nothing can be: pebbles, a municipal café, the sea. Walking in off the pebbles is startling even in August. Cold groundwater seeps out of the rock along the shoreline and sits alongside the warm Mediterranean in bands you feel on your legs. It keeps this cove colder than the bays on either side. The floor shelves steeply, so a few strides out you are already swimming. With a mask the pale bottom runs east and then drops away into deep blue. In winter, when the rain has the stream running again, roped teams work down the ravine behind the beach, over falls up to thirty metres, and step out under the road bridge a few paces from the sea. That road is still being fought over. A plan to widen the coast highway into a dual carriageway would need a viaduct across the gorge. Objectors overturned the first approval in court, and a fresh assessment in January 2025 started the argument again. It was hard enough to build the first time: the highway was hacked out of the cliff over years of work that ended in 1945, and four labourers were killed cutting the section above the beach. The men who did the work are remembered in a song still sung along this coast, Kalkan ile Kaputaş'ın arası, between Kalkan and Kaputaş. Their names are on two plaques set into the roadside, a few metres from where the coaches pull in.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The photograph everyone knows is taken from the road, not the beach — pull in at the roadside above the bridge, where the whole cove fits between the two rock walls in one frame.
187 steps down, and 187 back up — there is no other way in and no shade on the stair, so carry water; the only refreshment is a small municipal café on the shingle.
The pebbles shelve steeply into deep water — there is no long shallow wade here; a few steps from the shingle the bottom falls away, so keep children close and expect to be swimming at once.
The car park fills by mid-morning in July and August — arrive before nine or after five, when the tour coaches have gone and the shingle empties out again.

Things to do

1
Take the 187 steps down to the shingle
The stair drops from the roadside in long switchbacks, and the cove brightens flight by flight until the last steps put you onto warm pebbles at the water's edge. Stop once at the halfway turn and look up: the two rock walls close over the stair like a gate.
2
Wade into the cold that comes out of the rock
Walk in off the pebbles and the water is startling: cold groundwater seeps out at the shoreline and sits alongside the warm Mediterranean in bands you can feel against your legs. With a mask, swim towards the eastern wall, where the pale floor shelves gently and then falls into deep blue.
3
Look down on the cove from the road bridge
Before you go down, stop on the road that crosses the mouth of the gorge. From up here the beach is a bright wedge of turquoise clamped between two grey walls — the frame that made Kaputaş famous, and the only place you see the whole thing at once.
4
Rope down the gorge behind the beach
This one runs in winter, when rain has the Kaputaş Stream going again and guided teams work the ravine above the beach on rope. The first drops are wet — a string of falls, the tallest around thirty metres — and then the stream sinks into the limestone and the rest is rappelled down dry rock. The route comes out under the road bridge, a few steps from the sea.

Watch

Nearby

15 km