Kaş Old Town, the Bazaar Street That Climbs to a Tomb

A shopkeeper sweeps the stone in front of a carpet stall while a cat watches from the one step already in sun. Above them the upper floors lean out over the street on wooden bay windows, and a bougainvillea has found its way across a balcony rail.

Uzun Çarşı means Long Bazaar, and the name is plain description. The street starts at Cumhuriyet Square with the harbour behind you and climbs between houses of two and three storeys. The paving is old stone, steep in places and worn smooth, so your shoes matter more than your shopping list.

Bay windows and the families who built them

Until 1923 Kaş was Andifli, a Greek-speaking timber port. Many of the houses along the bazaar were built by Greek families, some of them from Meis, the island across the water. The population exchange of that year sent most of them to Greece. The houses stayed, and their ground floors became shops. Look above the signs: the timber bay windows, shutters and balconies belong to the old houses, not to the shops below. Several pensions still write their names in lettering that nods to the Greek alphabet.

What the street sells

Shopfronts spill onto the stone with jewellery, carpets, leather sandals, ceramics, antiques and vintage clothes. Many of the shops belong to the people who make the goods, so the best question in the street is simply who made this. Kaş was a small fishing village until the early 1980s, and the shops are a recent layer on much older houses.

The tomb at the top

The bazaar ends at a stone sarcophagus from the fourth century BC. Its pointed lid carries two lion heads, which gives it the name Lion's Tomb. Locals also call it the King's Tomb. The inscription is in Lycian B, an older literary form of the language that survives in only one other major inscription, the pillar at Xanthos. The tomb stands in the street itself, among shopfronts and café tables, where it has stood for more than two thousand years.

Doorsteps and side lanes

Lanes join the bazaar on both sides, and the cafés set their tables out in them. Cats take the warm doorsteps, the café chairs and any other patch of sun. They are residents, so step round them. A table in a side lane keeps you off the main street and still under the bay windows.

Editor's picks

• Climb from the square.Going up, the street ends at the tomb. Going down, it ends at the harbour.
• Look up.The bay windows sit above the shop signs and most people never see them.
• Ask who made it.Local artists often run their own shops, and the answer tells you what you are buying.
• Take a table in a side lane.You see the same houses with fewer people passing.
• Walk to the Hellenistic theatre.It is about ten minutes from the centre, by the sea, facing Meis.
• Cross to Meis.Ferries leave from the harbour in town. Check the return crossing before you commit.

Insider notes

The street is public and there is no ticket, and the tomb can be looked at at any hour. Shops open straight onto the stone, so you can go in and out as you please.

The inscription on the tomb is the most unusual thing in town. Few visitors know that the same language appears at Xanthos, about an hour from Kalkan, which makes the two places worth pairing.

The slope is steeper than it looks from the square. Leave the sandals with smooth soles at the hotel.

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How to get to Kaş Old Town

Dalaman is the closest airport, about two hours by road. Most hotels and guesthouses are within walking distance of the bazaar, so the car can stay parked, and dolmuşes run between Kaş and Kalkan. Flights from Europe and Istanbul are covered in Getting there.

Outside a carpet shop a cat has taken the only chair, and the owner is standing.