Turkey is where East meets West.A small part is in Europe, the larger part is in Asia.

Most of the diving in Turkey takes place on the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts (the Turkish Riviera), diving centres have mushroomed in most holidays resorts making this coastline increasingly accessible to scuba divers.

The main dive centres are at Bodrum, Marmaris, Fethiye, Kas and Alanya.Fethiye is probably the big diver-tourist centre, where the Aladins Cave dive is certainly worth doing.In Alanya, most of the diving is from the finger of land that protrudes from the sandy beach.In Marmaris, a popular site is Wreck Rock, which is a tiny island 100 metres from the shore with just its jagged roky tip showing above the waves and which in the past many Roman & Grecian ships have foundered upon.In being wrecked and disintegrating, the area has been littered with amphorae. Little diving is done in Gallipoli(Dardanelles) but dives can be arraged out of Canakkale.During WW1 there was a tremendous loss of life by the ANZAC forces, as well as a large amount of shipping.

What to see:

• Aladins Cave at Fethiye – at a depth of 23 metres (75 feet) Initially, you descend a wall with many varieties of marine life.You will find trumpet anemones,gem anemones,daisy anemones,strawberry anemones,devonshire , cup corals, gold star coral, soft corals, dead man fingers and many forms of lace corals.There are occasional moray eels, groupers, lobsters, crayfish and shrimps but not a tremendous amount of fish life.

• Lighthouse dive at Kas – the wreck of an Ottoman boat at 22m depth;the area is littered with amphorae.

• Rambo Cavern at Alanya – the entranceto the cavern is by a wide tunnel about 14 metres down a vertical wall.A large cave is soon reached roughly 35 metres wide and where you can surface and breathe the clean air and wiew the marvellous formation of overhangs and stalactites.This is a dive well worth doing.

*WWW1 wrecks out of Canakkale.