Aşağı Düden Şelalesi

When people in Antalya say "Düden", they may mean two different places, and it is worth keeping them apart. Upper Düden, in Kepez, is the waterfall where the stream resurfaces at Düdenbaşı and falls inside a recreation area, surrounded by a park run by the Metropolitan Municipality's companies. Lower Düden is the point where the same stream, after crossing the city, drops straight into the Mediterranean on the Lara road. Known locally as Karpuzkaldıran Waterfall, it lies about eight kilometres from the city centre, in Çağlayan neighbourhood, right beside Lara Avenue. The Düden stream is a karstic river that disappears underground at the Bıyıklı sinkhole and resurfaces eighteen kilometres later at Düdenbaşı in Kepez. After Upper Düden it crosses the city and reaches Lara, where it pours forty metres off the edge of the cliff into the sea. Antalya's cliffs are tufa rock averaging forty metres in height, and Düden is, in the words of the Metropolitan Municipality, the most important waterfall dropping from these cliffs into the sea. The water hitting the sea raises a permanent cloud of mist; on windy days the spray reaches the viewing terrace. To understand the high shore the water falls from, it is enough to look at the word cliff. A cliff here means a steep, high coast shaped by wave erosion; in Antalya it runs south of the city for about twenty kilometres, from Konyaaltı to Lara Beach. The travertine layer that forms the cliffs stretches thirty kilometres north to the Beydağları mountains and covers an area of 620 square kilometres. At Lower Düden you can follow a section through this layer on both sides of the cleft the water has carved over the years. The waterfall's ancient name is also known. In antiquity the Düden stream was called "Kataraktes" and was depicted as a river god on the city's coins. According to the Metropolitan Municipality's guide to the waterfalls, the ancient city of Magydos stood in the Karpuzkaldıran area where the falls are, and the city's fresh water came from Düden through aqueducts. Part of the ancient city's remains now lie inside the military recreation facility next door, so they cannot be visited freely. The same guide notes that remains of Lyrboton Kome, a 2,200-year-old settlement known for olive oil production in the Hellenistic period, have also been found around Upper Düden. Upper Düden is also called Alexander's Waterfall; it is said that Alexander the Great watered his horses here while passing through the region. The recreation area there was laid out by the State Hydraulic Works between 1970 and 1972, and today the falls are fed by water arriving by canal from the Kepez 1 Hydroelectric Power Plant. The heart of the visit is Düden Park on top of the cliff. The park is free and open all day; the Culture Portal refers to the same viewpoint as Gençlik Park. The waterfall is watched from the terrace with wooden railings on the shore and from the promontory at the western end of the park. The best angle is from the right of the cleft where the water falls, that is, looking from the Lara side; in the morning the sun is behind you and a rainbow over the water is likely. The park has a picnic area, a car park and a cafeteria. The biggest difference between Lower and Upper Düden is that the lower falls can be watched from the sea. Tour boats leaving the shore run along the cliffs and come right in front of the waterfall; the forty-metre drop into the sea can only be seen in full from this angle. Boat tour times and prices change with the season, so check current details with the tour operators or with the municipality. Düden Waterfall and Stream, within the boundaries of Kepez and Muratpaşa, was registered in 2020 by a decision published in the Official Gazette as a "Strictly Protected Sensitive Area". The area's earlier natural site status was thus converted into a stricter protection category. Because the stream passes through the city, its water may be muddy in the rainy months and reduced at the end of summer; the strongest flow is usually in late winter and spring. Getting there is easy. The waterfall on Lara Avenue is reached from the city centre by public transport and by buses heading towards Lara; the stop is right in front of the park. Drivers can use the park's own car park. Those who want to walk along the coast can start at Karaalioğlu Park and follow the clifftop road east; it is a long walk, so take water and a hat. After seeing the waterfall, continuing east along the same avenue brings you to Lara beach, and turning west leads back to Kaleiçi.