Sapadere Canyon's waterfalls and the wooden walkway

The walkway

The canyon floor is river almost the whole way, so the path is a wooden walkway bolted to the rock and hung above the water, with steel handrails on the open side. It runs about 750 m into the gorge, with steps where the river drops and a few uneven stretches where the rock intrudes. Two people can pass; the group moves at its slowest member's pace. It is easy walking with a hand on the rail — and it is not flat, which is why the who can join page exists.

The walls

Pale limestone, rising to about 400 m at the highest point, close enough in places that the sky is a strip. The light reaches the floor for a few hours in the middle of the day, which is when the tours arrive; the rest of the time the gorge is in shade and noticeably cooler than the coast.

The cascades on the way

The river does not wait for the end to perform. Along the walkway it drops over ledges into small basins, some milky turquoise, some clear over pale stone. These are the frames people stop for — and the reason the walk takes longer than its length suggests.

The waterfalls at the end

The walkway ends where the canyon narrows into a chain of falls, the tallest dropping into a turquoise pool ringed by rock. Platforms let you stand beside it; the pools below are where the swimming happens when the guide allows it. The water is spring-fed and cold in every month. Read the swimming page before you decide whether to go in.

What the photograph leaves out

The noise — a river in a stone corridor is loud. The temperature — a jumper's worth cooler than the car park. The wet — spray near the falls, damp timber, smooth rock. And the crowd in high season, which the guide manages by pace rather than by pretending it is not there. None of these are complaints; they are the canyon.

How the village fits

The canyon takes its name from Sapadere village below it, which the vehicle passes on the way in. The village page says what little we honestly claim about it.

Ready to stand at the falls? Book the Sapadere Canyon tour from Alanya — pay on the day, hotel pickup included.