Routes AKDENİZ

Tarsus – Silifke – Anamur Sahil Rotası (D-400)

Hidden coves and caves along the Mersin coast

DISTANCE: 253 km
DRIVING TIME: 3 h 30 min

Motorcycle
Car

The Mersin coast — clear water, dense green and hidden coves, with ruins and landscape folded into one another.

This stretch of the D400 is an unbroken chain of ancient Cilician cities at the water’s edge: at Tarsus the Cleopatra Gate and the traces of St Paul; between Erdemli and Silifke, Elaiussa Sebaste, Kanlıdivane, the castle of Kızkalesi standing in the sea, the Cennet and Cehennem sinkholes above Narlıkuyu, and Uzuncaburç up in the hills; at Anamur, Anemurium and Mamure — a 39-towered fortress and one of the best-preserved medieval castles in the country. Its other face is farming: the Göksu delta and the strawberries of Silifke, banana greenhouses along the Aydıncık-Bozyazı-Anamur stretch, and loggerhead nesting beaches.

What to eat

Tarsus humusu
hummus as a hot main course: chickpeas and tahini baked and served under sizzling butter, at its best with kavurma (fried lamb) on top
Tarsus; here it is a meal — often breakfast — and not a dip. Take the geographically protected Tarsus kebabı alongside it.
Tantuni, cezerye ve kerebiç
tantuni is beef fried in a wide flat pan and rolled into flatbread; cezerye is a chewy sweet of cooked carrot and nuts; kerebiç is a semolina pastry served under a whipped soapwort cream
Mersin; tantuni is on every corner, cezerye is what you carry on the road, and all three are registered
Silifke yoğurdu
a thick goat-milk yoghurt with a faint smoky note, because the milk is boiled over a wood fire
Silifke; made from hair-goat milk and protected both in Türkiye and in the EU
Gölevez
taro root: a starchy tuber stewed with beans or meat — in Türkiye it grows on this coast and nowhere else
Anamur and Bozyazı; grown only between the two, so it will not follow you further along the road
Batırık
fine bulgur kneaded with tahini, tomato and spices, eaten cold — filling, and completely without oil
Right across Mersin province (Tarsus, Silifke, Anamur)

What to buy

Anamur muzu
the local banana: short (10-15 cm), thin-skinned and far more scented than the imported kind
Anamur and Bozyazı; a protected designation of origin (no. 56), sold at the greenhouse stalls along the road, with the harvest running October to late March
Silifke çileği
a big, glossy strawberry — 30 to 50 grams a berry
Silifke; registered in 2019 and on the stalls fresh in spring
Cezerye
a dense sweet of cooked carrot and sugar, studded with nuts, rolled in coconut and cut into cubes
Mersin and Tarsus; sold by the box and the most robust thing to carry home
Tarsus şalgamı, Sarıulak zeytinyağı ve topacık (Tarsus beyazı) üzümü
şalgam is a salty, sour drink of fermented purple carrot and turnip; Sarıulak is the local olive; topacık is a small white table grape
Tarsus; all three are registered, and the Kırkkaşık bedesten of 1579 has stalls of local produce and craft

Road notes

In summer and over public holidays the Mersin-Erdemli-Kızkalesi band clogs up; take it early in the morning and do not leave it to the afternoon.
Silifke to Anamur is about 137 km / 2 hours, mostly dual carriageway on viaducts and through tunnels. Inland detours such as Uzuncaburç are mountain roads — fill up in Silifke or Anamur.
The hard part is west of Anamur: 77 km to Gazipaşa, some 30 of them still single-lane with steep ramps and sharp bends. Allow at least 1.5 hours and do not take it in the dark. New tunnel and viaduct stages are opening in phases, so check the current state before you leave.
From 1 May to 30 September the beaches at Anamur and in the Göksu delta are closed from 20:00 to 08:00 (on the Mersin side Alata, Davultepe and Kazanlı are included). Driving onto the sand, fires, barbecues, camping and lights are banned too. The fine is 699,245 TL, and three times that for companies.
The Cennet and Cehennem sinkholes are open 08:00-19:00 in summer and 08:00-17:00 in winter. It is 452 steps down into Cennet — go early, because the climb back is punishing in the midday heat, and wear proper shoes. Cehennem cannot be entered and is seen from the terrace.
The municipal viewing terrace at Silifke castle looks down on the Göksu and the town and makes a good break. Mamure castle is open to visitors and stays open until 20:00 in summer, until 15 September — so a late arrival still works.

Along the way

Cennet ve Cehennem Mağaraları
Heaven and Hell: two vast collapsed sinkholes in the limestone — 452 steps go down into the first, the second is looked at from a terrace
Anamurium Antik Kenti
a Roman and Byzantine city left standing on the shore: streets, baths and a necropolis, with the sea at the end of every lane
Kızkalesi
the Maiden’s Castle — a 12th-century fortress on an island 200 m offshore, reached by boat or by a long swim
Göksu Deltası
the wetland where the Göksu meets the sea: lagoons, dunes and reed beds, a Ramsar site and a nesting beach for loggerhead turtles

Itinerary

The route passes through 12 named stops. The line between them is the routed road geometry the map draws — and the distance was measured off that line.

Tarsus
Mersin (Akdeniz)
Mezitli
Erdemli
Kızkalesi (Ayaş)
Silifke
Taşucu
Boğsak
Yeşilovacık
Aydıncık
Bozyazı
Anamur

Directions in Google Maps

Sources

8 SOURCES

This record is the counterpart of the route card on İz's Explore screen. The whole shelf, and how it was compiled, is on the route shelf. İz is not open to everyone yet; it lives inside the OtoTasdik vehicle wallet app.