Kleopatra Beach

It begins on the west side of the peninsula, right in front of Damlataş Cave. It held a Blue Flag without a break from 2004 to 2025, twenty-two years running. The water is clear enough to see the bottom and the fish with a snorkel. The name comes from the story that Cleopatra and Antony swam here. Boat trips also stop for a swim fifty metres offshore.

The sand starts at the western foot of the rocky peninsula the castle sits on and opens out along the shore, with the town behind it and open sea in front. The small rocky cove at the base of the peninsula carries Cleopatra's name too, so the name belongs to the rocks below the castle as much as to the beach.

Behind that twenty-two-year Blue Flag run is an assessment repeated every single year; the award is never handed out once and kept. In the official register the beach appears as Kleopatra Doğu Halk Plajı, the Cleopatra East Public Beach, and as a public beach the sand is open to everyone.

There are two ways to see it from above. The cable car leaves its lower station in Damlataş and climbs to the castle right over the beach. Paragliders take off from Yassıtepe and come down on this same sand, so if you spot a bright wing drifting over the bay, this is where it lands.

People arriving by sea see it too: the pirate boat trip stops in front of it for a swim. On the city tour the beach is right at the foot of the cable car, so in your free time you can lay out a towel and go in.

• Blue Flag 2004-2025
• In front of Damlataş
• Clear for snorkelling