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Sedir Adası (Cedar Island) – Kedrai

Twelve kilometres down the Marmaris-Muğla road there is a turn to the right and, after you travel for another six kilometres, you get to another point on the Gulf of Gökova, Çamlı Quay. Boats leave from Çamlı Quay as they fill up and go to Sedir Island. The island is the site of the ancient city of Kedrai and the famed Cleopatra Beach.

Kedrai was a Carian city, later being connected to the Rhodian state. The word Kedrai means cedar in Greek. Although it is not known whether there were cedars, used in ancient times to build the frames of ships, on the island but that is the old Greek name for it.

Kedrai, directly opposite Rhodes, was one of the most important settlements in the region. The ancient city was surrounded by walls, some of which, along with towers, can be seen on the coastline. There was also a Temple of Apollon, though only its foundations remain. There are also ruins of the agora and other buildings, the city necropolis and, on the east of the island, the theatre, which is in a fairly good condition.

If we disregard major settlements such as Knidos, in the area opposite Rhodes, which covers the Marmaris and Bozburun region, there are only three places that have a theatre among the settlements from ancient times.

In 405 BC, during the Peloponnesian Wars between Athens and Sparta, the island was attacked by the Spartan general Lysander for its being on the side of Athens. The island was captured by the Spartans and the locals were enslaved. The historian Ksenophon, when writing about this war, described the island’s residents as half barbarians.

There is also a legend linking Cleopatra to Sedir’s golden sand beaches. The most widely told legend tells of the sand being transferred from Egypt by ships for Cleopatra and her lover, the Roman commander Antony, to frolic on when visiting the island.

On the northern part of the island the sand, consisting of special calcareous droplets not found anywhere else on the Aegean and Mediterranean shores barring Crete, is to be found. Unfortunately this sand is not being protected and is being lost. However, despite this, the golden sand of the Cleopatra Beach and the various beautiful tones of the sea still attracts visitors to Sedir.

The boats return to Çamlı Quay at around

4:00 to 5:00 pm.