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Altınbeşik Cave and the Buttoned Houses of Ormana in İbradı
Cultural

Altınbeşik Cave and the Buttoned Houses of Ormana in İbradı

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Two hours north of Antalya's coastline, once you enter the Taurus Mountains, another Antalya begins. İbradı is a highland district at eleven hundred meters; in summer the days are hot, the nights cool, the humidity low. Its name is thought to come from that coolness too.

İbradı, Antalya
Cultural
Radar Editör
October 15, 2026

About Trip

Two hours north of Antalya's coastline, once you enter the Taurus Mountains, another Antalya begins. İbradı is a highland district at eleven hundred meters; in summer the days are hot, the nights cool, the humidity low. Its name is thought to come from that coolness too. According to Wikipedia, İbradı derives from an Ottoman Turkish word meaning coldness or cooling; the Seljuk sultan Alaeddin Keykubad is said to have used the place as a summer retreat. Evliya Çelebi describes İbradı in his Book of Travels as a prosperous and important town in the seventeenth century, and the district stood out as a center of learning and wealth in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The district's two great assets stand a few kilometers apart. Altınbeşik Cave in the steep valley of the Manavgat river, and Ormana with its buttoned houses, which lock stone and cedar together without mortar. This trip fits both into a single day; a boat on the cave's underground lake in the morning, a walk through Ormana's stone streets in the afternoon.

Getting there

Altınbeşik Cave National Park lies near the Ürünlü neighborhood of İbradı, on the western slope of the Manavgat valley. According to the Wikipedia article it is about a hundred and twenty kilometers from Antalya's city center; the road turns off at the Serik junction toward Taşağıl and Derebucak, and from the town of Manavgat it is forty-five kilometers. Coming from Antalya, the road joins the new highway toward Derebucak and Konya at the Taşağıl junction, passes through the Demirkapı Tunnel, crosses the Eynif plain and reaches Ormana, then Ürünlü and the cave; in other words, Ormana already lies on the way in the day plan. Ürünlü is about ten kilometers from the İbradı center; the cave entrance is five kilometers southeast of the village, and you can drive down to the park gate. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism's promotional text speaks of an hour's walk from Ürünlü to the cave; today the road is open to vehicles, but the last kilometers down into the valley are narrow and winding and should not be hurried. Public transport reaches İbradı; to get on to the cave and to Ormana you need your own car or a local taxi. The best day plan is to leave Antalya early in the morning, go down to the cave first and up to Ormana in the afternoon. Ormana is three kilometers from the İbradı center.

What to see

Altınbeşik, in the words of the İbradı district governorate, is the third largest underground lake cave in the world and the largest in Türkiye; in 1994 it was declared a national park together with the land around it. The Sixth Regional Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks writes that the park covers an area of eleven thousand four hundred and sixty decares spanning the İbradı and Akseki districts. The cave is a karst system formed within Jurassic and Cretaceous limestone as groundwater dissolved the fracture systems, and it takes its name from Altınbeşik Hill above it. Local people also call it Düdensuyu. The cave is in fact the outlet of a large karst system, and the water flowing out of it is thought to be connected underground to Lake Beyşehir. Wikipedia describes this system in more detail. The underground network that gathers the waters of the Kızılova, Kambos and Söbüce plains passes beneath the Oruç sinkhole and surfaces at Altınbeşik; this course of more than a hundred kilometers as the crow flies makes it one of the longest karst systems in the world. Together with its inner branches, the total length of the cave has been measured at about two thousand two hundred meters. The sources differ on its ranking; the district governorate calls it the world's third largest underground lake cave while Wikipedia calls it Europe's third, and both agree that it is the largest in Türkiye. In the middle of the cave there is a natural rock bridge, and research inside it is still not complete.

The cave has three levels. What the visitor sees is the first level; an underground lake stretching from the entrance, and above the lake a wide gallery whose ceiling reaches fifty-eight meters in places. The navigable length of the lake is given as between two hundred and three hundred and fifty meters depending on the source; the water is up to fifteen meters deep in places, the level drops in autumn and the guides sometimes cannot reach the farthest point. According to the Regional Directorate's text, the second level is reached by climbing the forty-four meter wall of the chamber at the end of the first level; there are five deep pools there, then siphons that only experienced cavers and divers can pass, and the cave's widest chamber. These sections are closed to visitors. The name of Temuçin Aygen, the speleologist who discovered the cave in 1966, is remembered in that great chamber. The upper level is dry all year round; the stalactites and stalagmites are there. On the first level that you visit, flowstones, curtain stalactites, travertine pools and white calcite walls are seen from above the water. The inside of the cave stays between sixteen and eighteen degrees all year and the humidity is high; while it scorches outside in summer, you need a cardigan inside.

The tour is by boat. The entrance fee and the conditions of the boat tour change; for current information check the announcements of the İbradı Municipality and the General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks. One important note. The cave closes to visitors in winter and spring because the water level rises; the safe season is summer and early autumn. In addition, it was announced that the cave was temporarily closed in November 2025 for maintenance and improvement works; be sure to check whether it has reopened before you set out. The park is not only the cave. According to the Regional Directorate's inventory, five hundred and seventy-three plant taxa, fifty-eight bird species and twenty-three mammal species have been recorded in the area; the wild goat is the most sensitive of them. The walking routes through the red pine, juniper and maquis cover and the trout-filled water of the Manavgat river are rich enough to fill the day even if the cave is closed.

Ormana and the buttoned houses

Ormana, three kilometers from the İbradı center, was according to the sources founded on the ruins of the ancient city of Erymna; the Regional Directorate's text says the ruins of the city lie between Ormana and Ürünlü, and its necropolis is on the rocky ridges surrounding Ormana. In the Seljuk period the caravan road linking Konya to the Mediterranean passed through here, and Tol Han on the Eynif plain remains from that road. What makes the village known today is its houses. The buttoned house is a building technique seen only in the İbradı and Akseki area. The wall is built of rubble stone, cedar tie beams are laid between the stones at set intervals, and the protruding ends of these beams line the facade like buttons. No mortar or nails are used; the timber both binds the wall and gives it flexibility in an earthquake. The ground floor is a stable, hayloft or cellar, the upper floor the living space. The houses are given an age of three hundred to four hundred years; the youngest is about two hundred years old.

Ormana is said to have around three hundred buttoned houses; according to the Regional Directorate's register forty-nine of them are listed, and a further twenty-nine buttoned houses in the İbradı center and twenty-nine in Ürünlü are under protection. Some are being repaired through the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's aid program for immovable cultural assets, some still stand in ruin; seeing the two side by side is the shortest way to understand the village as it is today. The village became the only settlement from Türkiye to enter the list of best tourism villages announced by UN Tourism in 2024; the list consisted of fifty-five villages chosen from more than two hundred and sixty applications from over sixty countries. According to Wikipedia, the city that entered the history books as Erymna surrendered to Alexander the Great in 334 BC and passed to Seljuk rule with Alaeddin Keykubad's conquest in 1226. A Greek inscription from the Byzantine period and cut marble blocks built into vineyard walls can still be seen. In the population registers of the village, refounded in the Ottoman period, four hundred and sixty-seven surnames and about two hundred family names have been identified; Ormana became a township in 1991 under the name Ardıçpınar. Its population is around six hundred; the grape festival held in the first week of September for more than half a century brings the village's busiest days. As you walk the streets, look at the pattern of the wooden buttons on the facades, the thickness of the stone walls, the bay windows and the wooden ceilings. If you find the chance to go inside a restored mansion, you will see the woodwork up close.

Season and time of day

The safest period for the cave is between June and October; it is closed in winter and spring. In summer the coolness of İbradı is as valuable as the trip itself. Spend the midday heat inside the cave and the cool hours in the streets of Ormana. Early September is both the liveliest and the busiest time because of the festival. In autumn the Üzümdere valley and the Eynif plain change color; the chance of seeing the wild horses roaming free on the plain is greatest in the early morning hours.

Practical notes

  • Confirm whether the cave is open and the conditions of the boat tour with the İbradı Municipality or the national park administration before you set out; we do not print fees and hours here.
  • The inside of the cave is cool and damp; a light cardigan, non-slip shoes and a waterproof bag are useful. Take photographs without flash on the boat.
  • The road down into the valley is narrow; vehicles may come the other way, so drive slowly.
  • İbradı's Arapastı chestnut tree and the Melas valley are short detours on the way; add them if time remains.
  • Do not enter privately owned houses in Ormana without permission; some of the restored mansions are open to visitors, check the sign at the door.
  • Fuel stations are scarce in the district; fill up in Manavgat or Serik.

Sources

Location - Altınbeşik Cave and the Buttoned Houses of Ormana in İbradı

Trip Info
Cityİbradı, Antalya
TypeCultural
DateOctober 15, 2026
SourceRadar Editör
Radar TürkiyeAuthorRadar TürkiyeVisit SourceGet Directions