Prior to World War I (1914-18) the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire had for centuries controlled most of the Middle East and (for varying amounts of time) North Africa and Southeast Europe. Following the war the Empire was partitioned by the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres and after a period of turmoil and warfare the Republic of Türkiye (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti in Turkish) was established in 1923. The country was historically called Turkey but in 2022 the Turkish government informed the United Nations that it prefers the official spelling Türkiye to be used in English. The Directory uses the spelling Türkiye in its descriptions but retains Turkish as the adjective form and preserves the more familiar spelling Turkey on the index page. Most of Türkiye (97%) is in Asia, including the broad peninsula of Anatolia (Asia Minor) with the Black Sea on the north, the Aegean Sea on the west and the Mediterranean Sea; on the south. The remaining 3% is the region of East Thrace at the southeastern corner of Europe. For administrative purposes Türkiye is divided into 81 provinces (il or vilayet). This page includes Anatolian Türkiye's lighthouses on the eastern Mediterranean coast, including the provinces of Hatay, Adana, Mersin, and Antalya. Since the 1920s the Turkish language has been written in a Latin script; a distinctive feature of the alphabet is that the dotted (İ and i) and dotless (I and ı) forms of the letter I are different letters. The Turkish phrase for a lighthouse is fener (plural fenerler) or deniz feneri ("sea lantern"). Ada or adası is an island, yarımada is a peninsula, kaya is a rock or reef, burnu is a cape, burun ("nose") is a headland, körfez is a gulf, koy is a bay or inlet, boğaz is a strait, nehir is a river, and liman is a harbor. In Turkish the Mediterranean Sea is called Akdeniz. Lighthouses in Türkiye are operated by the Directorate General of Coastal Safety (Kıyı Emniyeti Genel Müdürlüğü, KEGM). The severe earthquake of 6 February 2023 caused catastrophic damage in Adana and Hatay provinces. Information is lacking on how lighthouses fared in this disaster, so some descriptions may be outdated. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume N of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 113.
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Hatay Province Lighthouses
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Adana Province Lighthouses
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Yumurtalık Main Light, Yumurtalık, 2017 Directorate General of Coastal Safety photo |
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Mersin Province Lighthouses
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Bölükada Light, Yeşilovacık Directorate General of Coastal Safety photo |
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Antalya Province Lighthouses
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Patera Light, Kalkan image copyright Denizbulten.com; used for educational purpose |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: Northwest: Southwestern Türkiye | East: Syria | South: Northern Cyprus
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted May 5, 2007. Checked and revised May 30, 2024. Lighthouses: 50. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.