Akköy - Ornithologists boost tourism

Saturday, 22 March 2025 10:18
Written by Portal Editor

The small town of Akköy is located in the heart of the Meander Delta nature reserve on the Dilek Yarimadasi peninsula in the Izmir area, about 5 km from the ancient city of Miletus.

Miletus was once the capital of Ionia and thus also the centre of former Western philosophy.

Akköy – Agriculture and, increasingly, Tourism

Akköy is the oldest village in this region and remains important to this day, primarily for its agriculture. In the early years of the founding of the Republic of Turkey, there were only three official buildings in Akköy: the district administration building, an elementary school building that served the children of the surrounding villagers, and the gendarmerie station building.

Several village houses were made of mud bricks. Akköy also boasts the largest village library in modern-day Turkey. This library also publishes a periodical culture, art, and literature magazine bearing the village's name. Akköy currently has a total population of approximately 1,400. Furthermore, Akköy is a picturesque village with an intact village life, largely undiscovered by tourism. If you take a little time to wander around, you will encounter the old architecture of the whitewashed Greek-Ottoman stone houses, which remain warm in winter and cool in summer.

The main sources of income for Akköy's population today are tourism, agriculture, and olive cultivation. Tobacco cultivation, which requires very tiring labor, is the predominant agricultural activity in Akköy. Strawberry cultivation was added some time ago. In addition to strawberries, numerous fruits and vegetables also grow in the fertile lands of Akköy.

Most of these products are sold as fresh as possible at the market stalls in Mavişehir, especially in the summer months. Fig cultivation is a traditional agricultural element in Akköy, as in almost the entire Aegean region. Yellow and black lobed figs, especially the Bursa Karası, are exported from the trees in Akköy as far as Didim. Another agricultural product from Akköy is the abundant grapes from the vineyards.

Population exchange changed the landscape

Before 1922, Akköy had 4,000 Greek-Ottoman residents, descendants of the Greeks who had been settled in this region from the Peloponnese and Crete in 1770 under the rule of the Ottoman Sultan Mustafa III and his governors Ivazzade Halil Pasha and Silahtar Mehmed Pasha, to cultivate the area and stabilize the population.

Additional families settled there as a result of archaeological excavations in Miletus and Didyma. With the help of German archaeologists, the elementary school and the Church of St. George were then built.

The Greek author Eystratiu Draku noted in his work Mikrasiana Pragmate that in 1884, Akköy was an important town with a school of 40 students and a church, "Ayiyos Georgiya," in the southwest of the village, attended by 200 Greek Orthodox families. Thirty wealthy Muslim families later settled here from Balat.

During the population exchange of 1923, the Greek inhabitants left Akköy and went to Samos and Thessaloniki. Akköy was in turn settled by Turkish inhabitants from the Greek territories, who, in turn, had to leave Greece.

Akköy – known worldwide by ornithologists

Akköy can now be found on almost every ornithological map worldwide, as it is home to over 250 different bird species. Amateur and professional ornithologists, who work in the branch of science that not only observes but also studies birds, know every inch of the country very well, from Lake Bafa to Kafa, where the Menderes River flows into the Aegean Sea.

They constantly scan the area with cameras in their hands, long zoom lenses in packs on their backs, and, of course, their powerful binoculars.

One of the most striking natural phenomena that Akköy regularly experiences is the flocks of kestrels that migrate across the Aegean Sea to nest in Akköy's trees and rooftops every year in late March and early April.

The residents of Akköy help create suitable habitats for the kestrels, which feed on locusts, scorpions, snakes, and millipedes, thus also providing a benefit to the local population.

The residents are happy to host these predatory but absolutely beneficial birds from Africa.

By car or public transport to Akköy

Akköy can be reached from the main road in Söke towards Bodrum.

At the intersection, turn left towards Didim, passing the village of Akyeniköy.

The cobblestones and the proud elevation leading up to Akköy indicate that this was one of the oldest villages in the area, and that the administrative offices of the other surrounding villages were once located here.

From Bodrum, the journey takes about an hour, passing the beautiful Lake Bafa and the endless olive groves.

You should definitely try the delicious spruce honey sold by farmers along the roadside.

Akköy is also easily accessible by bus from Söke.

The "Didim Seyahat" midi-bus takes you to Akköy every 20 minutes.

If you are coming by bus from Bodrum, you will need to change to the "Milas Birlik" (dolmus) at the bus station in Milas and from there to the Dalyan intersection.