Turkey's lively Aegean resort of Marmaris is within easy reach of many quiet and unspoilt spots. One of these is Orhaniye, 28 kilometres away. This picturesque village lies on a tiny bay by encircled by pine clad hills overlooking calm sapphire waters which glisten in the warm golden sun. Reaching far out into the bay is a low spit of sand, and as you walk through the water up to your ankles, anyone looking over the bay from a distance might be deceived into thinking you were walking on the water. Indeed you are free to imagine yourself doing exactly the same thing.
Although the bay is marked on sea charts as Kecibuku, or Goat Bay, all the locals refer to it by the more poetic name of Kizkumu, meaning Maiden's Sands.
Kizkumu is a quiet spot just half an hour away from the lively streets of Marmaris. Turkish holiday makers only recently began coming to this bay, which was originally discovered by yachts touring this spectacular coast of inlets and coves. The poor road deterred would-be visitors by land coming here for several years until the asphalt road was built. If you spend a day at Orhaniye and make the acquaintance of local people, you will be able to hear the legend of the maiden who gave this place its name. Once upon a time pirates attacked the village, and to escape their clutches a beautiful girl who lived here filled her skirts with sand and began to build a causeway across the bay. But the sand ran out before she could reach the other side and she flung herself into the sea rather than fall into pirates' hands. Even mundane geological facts do not stop this story lending its own enchantment to this beautiful place.
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