OBSERVATIONS ABOUT KABAK VALLEY

Many scientists are doing research studies in and outside Turkey about the flora and fauna of the Gemile Bay.

Prof.Dr. Mehmet Koyuncu from Ankara University Pharmaceutical Faculty and Ass. Prof. Dr. Hayri Duman from Gazi University Science & Arts Faculty Biology Dept. have noted 220 different types of plants on their visit to the region around Gemile Bay between April, 20-23 1996. In a list prepared in a very short period of time of 3 days, 16 endemic plants were found such as Aristolochia poluninii, Ballota pseudodictamnus, Stachys bombycina, Hypericum avuculariforlium, Quercus aucheri and Veronica Lycica. In this report prepared after the short visit, the scientists have found some oak and olive trees that have the characteristics of a monument tree. Besides, in the report there are statements such as "Here, there are red pine trees reaching the sea". Other observations about the region are as follows : "Besides, we have met some oak and olive trees in the region with monument tree characteristic."

We have met Quercus Aucheri, an endemic tree seen mostly in Southwest Anatolia, with a record thickness of stem. This tree is located in a field between Kabak-Erendagı road, 410 meters high from the sea. With a 12-15 meters height, the periphery of the tree is 6.15 meters and its corolla width is 15 meters. There is another one in the 1-2 kms. north of this tree, again in a field, 15-18 meters high, with a periphery of 5 meters. Also, in the same region there are old olive trees in the gardens in the south of Belen. Especially, two of them attract great attention with their old and carved stems. The periphery of one of them is approximately 9 meters, the other's is 6.9 meters. These trees, 300 meters up from the sea, are 7-8 meters high and they still give fruit. Although we can not make predictions about the ages of these trees, there is noone from the region remembering the young ages of them.

During our study in this region, we have noted that the people living here collect some medical and aromatic plants and make their earning out of them. For ex., daphne (Silvia fruticosa) and thyme (Orgganum onites) are the most crucial of these plants collected for this purpose.

This flora richness of the region is enriched by the sea, the steep cliffs and the natural beauty scenes created by the big waterfalls. When the blue sea view of the Butterfly Valley and the Gemile (Kabak) Bay are thought together with these beauties, the region turns out to a real heaven.

The observations of Dr. John Akeroyd, a botanist and at the same time the editor of the "Plant Talk" magazine , are as follows : "The Baba Mountain is one of the richest places of Turkey in terms of plant cover. Besides the healthy pine and cedar trees, there are some endemic plants with corm and the region has been specified as a crucial plant cover by the nature protectors. Possessing various plant types such as Sternbergia Candida having white flowers in spring, The Baba Mountain is under danger of popularity due to tourism. Kabak Strait has a rich endemic plant cover and many deer flocks exist here. In summers, there appear some Jessy Tigers in the region that are similar to the ones living in the Butterfly Valley, 80 kilometers west of Rhodes Island. " Dr. J.Eyers, a geologist from the Oxford, Cambridge and Open Universities, is one of the scientists making analysis in the region. "The strait is extraordinarily attractive for the visitors and especially for scientists. The region has become a living area of various plant and animal species because of the sttep limestone cliffs and waterfalls. These plant and animal species that are not seen in any other part of the region have grown up in the exclusive conditions of this region. This kind of a region with such endemic characteristic should be protected with great care. "

Ruth Berry, a botanist and a plant photographer from Lancaster University, has made regular visits to the region and has stated that there is a very rarely seen wild life here and the protection of the area is a prerequisite for the continuation of this sort of life.

The geological characteristics of the region plays a key role in the wild life of the region composed of various plant and animal species, steep cliffs, forests reaching the sea. My major source of information about the geological structure of the bay was Dr. Jill Eyers from the Department of Natural Sciences, Open University (Milton Keynes-England). According to the information I gathered, the canyon made up of limestone of 1000 meters high, descends thinning to the beach of 200 meters. And the limestone in this area is composed of a huge rock which is part of a larger mass called "Lycia Mass". In addition to limestone, there are also wide peridotit (tough and thick slices of rock in the depths of earth cruft that are pressed up ) and rock areas.

The last placement of the slices of rock out of the Lkya Mass goes as far as 15 million years from today. The slice making up the Kabak Bay and Baba Mountain is called Koyceğiz ascending land slice. The source of this slice is the south side of a metamorphic mass called Menderes Masifi (a solid older than 500 mn years)

The youngest of the rocks in the place is 45mn years old. The effects of The Last Glacial Period, eartquakes, erosion and other factors have affected the view of the region, the soil, plants and the animals directly. The species in this region have characteristics of their own and live an evolution stage completely different from the other places. The water sources that arise in 300 meter levels in Kabak give way to the growth of various plants in steep sides and a forest of 50,000 trees.

In fact, the limestone beneath the Koyceğiz slice is not suitable for the formation of a strait. But a small part of the slice being located in the right geographic position and height forms the Kabak Strait. Indeed, this coincidence can take place only one in a million. (According to the scientists, the first clues about this structure appear mostly in the Last Gracial Period. In fact, this part of Turkey has never been covered with glaciers but its vicinity must have faced such a period of glacier). The place is always under frost in winter and in summer the ice melts and the first valley of Kabak Canyon is hollowed out.

Due to the melting of the ice layer, the rise of the sea level and the reflow of the river in the west of Kabak, the animals and plants living in the canyon begin to be isolated from the neighbour regions. The reason behind the endemic characteristic of the mentioned species is this isolation.

The miraculous formation at and around Kabak Bay attracts the scientists as well. Baba Mountain is one of 100 mountains on which World Heritage Society makes scientific observations and for which it announces complete protection. Professor James Campton is one of the scientists handling studies in the region. Campton asserts that the area is a botanical heaven and should be left to the next generations without any damage.

The upper part of the canyon reaching Kabak Bay resembles a jungle full of puddles and waterfalls with Jessy Tigers widely seen. This place and the left side when going 200 meters inside the beach, are registered as a First Degree Protected Site together with the place where Lycia originated graves from the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. are found (belonging to the Persian period). According to the information I received from archeologist Hüseyin Körktürk, the window seen on the grave carrying the characteristics of Lycia grave architecture is related to the religious beliefs of Lycian people. In mythology, Lycian people believed that Harpies, known as woman-headed, bird-bodied creatures, will take away the souls of the dead bodies and will bring them to Hades known as the "World of Dead".One of this rarely seen grave monuments of such Lycian type has remained till today and has been the cover of a book of Claudine Deltour-Levie published in France in 1982. Among the historical tissue of the Kabak Bay, there exists a mill, water arcs remaining from the Byzantium Era and a monastery from the Early Byzantium Era.