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It’s long been a mystery to me where Koyunbaba starts and ends, so I was excited to stumble across this council map the other day that shows where the village we call home, starts and ends.

The municipality of Gümüşlük used to extend east from the harbour for about 4.5km and included the district (“Mahalle” in Turkish) of Koyunbaba.

The government reorganisation a couple of years ago meant that Koyunbaba officially ceased to exist and got amalgamated into Gümüşlük, which became a single district of Bodrum. This was great news as Gümüşlük has a past steeped in history, and although it’s only a small fishing village it has a widespread repute.

This changed yet again in 2016 when Koyunbaba regained its district status, but this time it became a district of Bodrum rather than Gümüşlük.

It’s all quite confusing, especially for Koyunbaba residents like me, who have officially had three different addresses in as many years, without having moved house once! Besides local residents, most people refer to the Koyunbaba as Gümüşlük anyway. (fyi .. the translation of Koyunbaba is Father’s Village).

All that’s really important, is to remember is that Koyunbaba ends where it meets the old municipality of Yalıkavak border, adjacent to The Gümüşkaya Sitesi and the Gümüşkaya dolmuş station. From here, it’s another 6km to central Yalıkavak.

BUT … in the recent shuffles – Yalıkavak has reverted back to it’s three areas, it’s now Yalikavak (centre); Dirmil (i.e. Gokcebel area); and Geriş.

So this border near Gümüşkaya is no longer a Gümüşlük and Yalıkavak border, it’s a Koyunbaba and Geriş border, and there’s new signs to prove it!

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