Seven Monastery

Lovely place to visit but not for the feint hearted it is a tough 3 kilometre walk and not for wheel chairs or any one with walking disability.

You can drive to within 2km of the monastery. There will be a sign showing the direction and distance of 2km. From there it is a 1 hour hike. The path is well defined and easy to follow since it is marked with red and white paint. Bring proper shoes and lots of water. The trail can be challenging. The monastery itself is very interesting, and there was not a soul there when we visited. Recommended!

Seven monasteries or Yediler monastery is an absolutely fascinating place; especially a trail to it. It is not quite clear why it is called Seven Monasteries or Seven Brother Monasteries. At least we did not find any mentioning of it. Certainly we found ruins of just one monastery. It is not also clear when it was built and what happened there during a long period of its functioning at Bafa lake hills. In some way it is of advantage since you may conduct your own historic investigation during visiting. I think that a way to the Monasteries is certainly worth to go miles from any surrounding seashore resorts. Please do not be in harry when you are doing this trail.nThe starting point of trail is near the farm in Golyaka village about 100 meters from a local Moschee von Gölyaka. It is denoted by a sign ‘Yediler monastery 2 km’. The trail is well indicated by white and red marks and have several signs showing a distance to the monastery. We did the way up for 65 min, were at the monastery for 35 min and spent 45 min to go down to our car. During Summer you need to have at least one liter of water per a person. It is better to start at early morning or 3-4 hours before sunset. The trail is passable by any adult healthy human being having tracking shoos.nWe stayed in Hotel Silva Oliva Lake Bafa in about 20 min to drive from a starting point. It is an old fashioned and interesting hotel having a good and not expensive restaurant. You may enjoy perfect views of Bafa lake from a balcony of your room, practice yoga on the lake shore or observe fish, snakes and birds while lying in a hammock near the water.

Spending ten minutes on this site, especially near dawn, is worth adding ten months of peacefulness to our lifetime. Be ready to hike about 3 km to reach there and return (so 6 km in total). The hiking path starts from a village in the vicinity of Lake Bafa. I suggest you get plenty of water with you.

Yediler Monastery; The Monastery of the Seven Monks is dated back to the Byzantine period and used to have four churches on its lands high up Mount Latmos. Nowadays, most of its buildings have disappeared, but still, the ruin is a fascinating place to visit. Not in the least because the walk up (and also back down) is a beautiful hike. Nature there is stunning and – almost for the entire walk – you are treated with pretty spectacular views of Lake Bafa.nThe trail is a climb of about 3km, starting in Gölyaka village.nnThe cells of the Monastery are still intact. There are very small, but all with the same spectacular view. Near the Monastery, there is a rock formation with frescoes hidden underneath the overhang. The trail to and from the Monastery is divine, and the surroundings are breathtaking (a bit like the climb itself ). Do look for the frescoes and go hunting for the pre-historical wall paintings hidden in many of the caves of Mount Latmos. It is a bit like an archaeological scavenger hunt as there are about 170 paintings found to date. They date back to the 6th BC.