I’ve sort of been on a roll about these easy peak-bagging hikes near Antalya. This one’s Delikli Dağı, a hike I did over three years ago. The group leader was Metin, the same Metin who led us up Güllük Dağı recently. Delikli Dağı means Holey Mountain or Mountain with Holes, named after the large holes in the mountain that are supposedly visible from Antalya. Our destination, in fact, wasn’t the summit at all, but a couple of these holes. Perhaps we’d call then arches in Utah or Colorado.
I’ve never been able to spot those holes from Antalya.
The access to Delikli Dağı is from Sarı Çınar, the peak above Hisarçandır with the large antenna at the top. We drove almost all the way to the summit, parked, and actually started our walk to Delikli Dağı with a 400m descent! I think it wasn’t more than three hours to the arches.
I remember at the time that I had been getting tired of the large, regimented group excursions that are common in Turkey. It’s quite different from what we’d expect in the US. I’ve commented on this before, particularly about how I’ve caused problems, I’d guess you’d say, for some leaders. Metin’s more casual than most, and my notes from this day say this “was one of the best group excursions from Antalya” that I’ve done.
Here we’re descending away from the antenna:
Here is what one of the holes looks like, the easiest one to walk through. There’s another one to the left. You can see the sun shining through, lighting up the tree. There was no place to stand to get good photos since these are really just holes in the cliff face.
Mostly it was a day of typical Antalya mountain scenery.
