Muğla Province in the context of "Ölüdeniz"

The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some 215,000 km (83,000 sq mi). In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn connects to the Black Sea, by the straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, respectively. The Aegean Islands are located within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The sea reaches a maximum depth of 2,639 m (8,658 ft) to the west of Karpathos. The Thracian Sea and the Sea of Crete are main subdivisions of the Aegean Sea.

The Aegean Islands can be divided into several island groups, including the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, the Sporades, the Saronic islands and the North Aegean Islands, as well as Crete and its surrounding islands. The Dodecanese, located to the southeast, includes the islands of Rhodes, Kos, and Patmos; the islands of Delos and Naxos are within the Cyclades to the south of the sea. Lesbos is part of the North Aegean Islands. Euboea, the second-largest island in Greece, is located in the Aegean, despite being administered as part of Central Greece. Nine out of twelve of the Administrative regions of Greece border the sea, along with the Turkish provinces of Edirne, Çanakkale, Balıkesir, İzmir, Aydın and Muğla to the east of the sea. Various Turkish islands in the sea are Imbros, Tenedos, Cunda Island, and the Foça Islands.

The Turkish Riviera (Turkish: Türk Rivierası), also known popularly as the Turquoise Coast, is an area of southwest Turkey encompassing the provinces of Antalya and Muğla, and to a lesser extent Aydın, southern İzmir and western Mersin. The region of Turkey, located along the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts, is characterized by its climate, coastal geography, mountainous terrain, beaches, and numerous natural and archaeological sites. Extending over approximately 1,000 km (620 mi) kilometers of shoreline, it is frequently visited by both domestic and international tourists.

Among the archaeological points of interest are two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: The ruins of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus; and the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.

Lycia (/ˈlɪsiə/; Lycian: 𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊖 Trm̃mis; Greek: Λυκία, Lykia; Turkish: Likya) was a historical region in Anatolia from 15–14th centuries BC (as Lukka) to 546 BC. It bordered the Mediterranean Sea in what is today the provinces of Antalya and Muğla in Turkey as well some inland parts of Burdur Province. The region was known to history from the Late Bronze Age records of ancient Egypt and the Hittite Empire.

Lycia was populated by speakers of Luwic languages. Written records began to be inscribed in stone in the Lycian language after Lycia's involuntary incorporation into the Achaemenid Empire in the Iron Age. At that time (546 BC) the Luwian speakers were displaced as Lycia received an influx of Persian speakers.

Muğla (Turkish: [ˈmuːɫa]) is a city in southwestern Turkey. The city is the center of the district of Menteşe and Muğla Province, which stretches along Turkey's Aegean coast. Muğla's center is situated inland at an altitude of 660 m and lies at a distance of about 30 km (19 mi) from the nearest seacoast in the Gulf of Gökova to its south-west. Muğla (Menteşe) district area neighbors the district areas of Milas, Yatağan and Kavaklıdere to its north by north-west and those of Ula and Köyceğiz, all of whom are dependent districts. Muğla is the administrative capital of a province that incorporates internationally well-known and popular tourist resorts such as Bodrum, Marmaris, Datça, Dalyan, Fethiye, Ölüdeniz and also the smaller resort of Sarigerme.

Bodrum (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈbodɾum]) is a town and district of Muğla Province in Turkey. It is a port town at the entrance to the Gulf of Gökova. Known in ancient times as Halicarnassus, the town was once home to the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, also known as the tomb of Mausolus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

The town was founded by Dorian Greeks. It later fell under Persian rule and became the capital of the satrapy of Caria. Mausolus ruled Caria from here, and after his death in 353 BC, his wife Artemisia built a tomb, called the Mausoleum, for him. Macedonian forces laid siege to the city and captured it in 334 BC. After Alexander's death, the city passed to successive Hellenistic rulers and was briefly an independent kingdom until 129 BC, when it came under Roman rule. A series of natural disasters and repeated pirate attacks wreaked havoc on the area, and the city lost its importance by the time of the Byzantine era. The Knights Hospitaller arrived in 1402 and used the remains of the Mausoleum as a quarry to build Bodrum Castle. After the conquest of Rhodes by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1522, the town fell under Ottoman control as the Knights Hospitaller relocated to Europe.

Marmaris (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈmaɾmaɾis]) is a municipality and district of Muğla Province, Turkey. Its area is 906 km, and its population is 97,818 (2022). It is a port city and tourist resort on the Mediterranean coast, along the shoreline of the Turkish Riviera.

Although Marmaris is known for its honey, its main source of income is international tourism. It is located between two intersecting sets of mountains by the sea, though following a construction boom in the 1980s, little is left of the sleepy fishing village that Marmaris was until the late 20th century.

Fethiye (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈfethije]) is a municipality and district of Muğla Province, Turkey. Its area is 875 km, and its population is 177,702 (2022). It is one of the prominent tourist destinations in the Turkish Riviera. It was formerly known as Makri, and Meğri.

Kayaköy (also: Kaya or Livissi) is a neighbourhood of the municipality and district of Fethiye, Muğla Province, Turkey. In 2022, its population was 975. Situated 8 km south of Fethiye, it is mostly abandoned. It was anciently known in Greek as Karmylessos (Ancient Greek: Καρμυλησσός), shortened to Lebessos (Ancient Greek: Λεβέσσος) and pronounced in Modern Greek as Leivissi (Greek: Λειβίσσι). From Ancient Greek the town name shifted to Koine Greek by the Roman period, evolved into Byzantine Greek in the Middle Ages, and finally became the Modern Greek name still used by its townspeople before their final evacuation in 1923.

In late antiquity the inhabitants of the region had become Christian and, following the East-West Schism with the Church of Rome in 1054 AD, they came to be called Greek Orthodox Christian. These Greek-speaking Christian subjects, and their Turkish-speaking Muslim Ottoman rulers, lived in relative harmony from the end of the turbulent Ottoman conquest of the region in the 14th century until the early 20th century. Following the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, and the subsequent Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, the town's Greek Orthodox residents were exiled from Livissi.