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🇹🇷Kalkan marine part 5🇹🇷

Kalamaki, as Kalkan was known in ancient history is thought to have been founded between 150-200 years ago by traders from the Greek Island of Meis, which lies 2 miles off shore from the town of Kas, which is 18 miles from Kalkan.

 

The success of those early traders encouraged others of both Greek and Turkish origin to settle. Evidence of this can be seen in the similarity in architecture in Meis and Kalkan. Settlement was further stimulated by Kalkan's harbour which was the only safe, hospitable harbour between Fethiye and Kas.

 

Kalkan Mosque

Kalkan's Mosque, originally a Greek orthodox church is one of Kalkan's earliest buildings and the architecture is very reminiscent of churches that can be seen in the Greek Mediterranean today.

 

Kalkan people were largely involved in trade. Various produce, including charcoal, silk, cotton, Olive oil, timber, grapes and sesame were brought by camel from the plains of Patara and mountains to be loaded onto ships where goods were taken to other parts of the Ottoman empire such as Egypt, Syria, Cyprus, Rhodes and Lebanon.

 

The 20th century saw Kalkan prosper with this trade, and history records that in the early 1900's there was a customs House, 17 restaurants, a goldsmith and several tailors at this time.

 

The 1920's saw the start of changes, with the founding of the Turkish Republic, and population exchange of Greeks and Turks. Greeks who were living in Turkey moved to Greece and Australia, and Turks who were living in Greece moved to Turkey.

 

In the 1960's a coastal road was completed between Kalkan and the larger towns of Antalya to the East and Fethiye to the West. This new mobility and the opportunities for local people to develop businesses further afield meant that at that time many people left Kalkan.

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Uploaded on August 11, 2021
Taken on August 9, 2021