Cleopatra's Island (Sedir)

A small island in the Gulf of Gökova north-east of Marmaris, reachable by boat trip in under an hour. The island holds the ruins of the ancient Greek city of Cedreae — a small theatre and stretches of city wall on the headland — and the famously fine "Cleopatra's Beach", strict-entry sand that visitors are required to wash their feet before stepping onto and forbidden to take home in pockets or bottles.

It is one of the standard daily boat trips out of Marmaris, often combined with stops at nearby beaches. Go early in the season or off-peak hours: the island gets very crowded between eleven and three in summer.

things to do sight beach historic
A story
Local legend insists the unusually fine pale sand on the beach was imported by Mark Antony from North Africa for Cleopatra to swim from when she visited him here. The romance is fiction — the sand is in fact a rare natural deposit of oolitic limestone particles found in only a handful of places in the Mediterranean — but the legend is what built the tourist boat trade.

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