Dikili, Turkey

Dikili

Dikili, on Turkey's north Aegean coast near Bergama, is a town spread out around the shore of a broad bay. It's a distance of at least several kilometers from one end of the town to the other.

The center of town (if there can be said to be a center) is marked by fine old pine trees. In the northern part of town, a rough sand beach stretches for hundreds of meters.

Like most Turkish towns, Dikili (DEE-kee-lee) is growing at an alarming pace, and now big concrete apartment blocks march along the crest of the hill to the east to take advantage of the sunset water views.

It'd be nice to say that Dikili is "undiscovered" by tourism, but that is no longer the case.

Both Turkish and foreign vacationers come to Dikili for its relative calm and quiet, broken now and then by the horn of a cruise ship disembarking hundreds of passengers on their way to visit the ruins of nearby Bergama (Pergamum).

Still, it's a pleasant place to spend a few days if you'd like some time by the sea in a place that's, well, sort of undiscovered.

The village of Çandarli, 10 km (6.2 miles) due south of Dikili, has its own small medieval fortress, and is even less discovered.

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