Bezirgan Tarihi Tahıl Ambarları

Good to know

• Tourist attraction
• Wheelchair accessentrance
• Parking
• Good for kids
• 4.6 / 561 reviews
• Türkiye

What Makes Them Extraordinary

Each granary rises about three to four metres on a raised stone or timber podium, with a gabled roof and a single entrance reached by a short wooden ladder from the ground. The construction technique — pure interlocking joinery in fragrant cedar — means the wood expands and contracts with seasonal humidity without warping or splitting, allowing the buildings to breathe and keep their contents dry. The structures are divided into four separate compartments covering 25–30 square metres, letting families store different crops (wheat, barley, chickpeas) alongside valued tools or even jewellery.↗↗

The form itself is a deliberate homage to Lycian monumental architecture. Art historian Naciye Küçük, whose 150-page thesis documented the region's granaries, notes that their plan mirrors Lycian burial chambers with saddle-arch and hip-and-valley rooflines, rectangular "göbs" (inner storage bays), and a single controlled entry. Walking the row of weathered cedar boxes is, in effect, reading an open-air catalogue of how a civilization translated sacred architecture into everyday agricultural life.↗

Living Heritage on the Lycian Way

The Bezirgan granaries remain part of local life: elderly residents still climb the ladders to retrieve grain, and the buildings serve as lockups for those who still practice seasonal transhumance between the village and the coast. The reason the granaries were concentrated at this particular spot is rooted in the landscape itself — the Bezirgan Polye (a karstic basin) flooded each winter, so villagers migrated to the shore and stored their belongings here in the elevated, well-ventilated cedar chests. A dedicated watchman guarded the row until roughly thirty years ago; today the keys and locks, some designed to accept two padlocks simultaneously, remain in use.↗↗

Travellers on the Lycian Way regularly pause here, and local residents sometimes volunteer as informal guides, explaining the granaries and offering a glass of tea. The site's rating on Google Maps (4.6 from more than 60 reviews) reflects that combination of easy access, photogenic power, and genuine cultural resonance.↗↗

Getting There & Visiting

Bezirgan village sits roughly 42 km from Kaş town via the coastal road, at an elevation that places it above the flat polye floor on its southern edge. The granaries are at the eastern margin of the village, where the path opens toward the gorge that catches the prevailing east–west wind — the same breeze that kept the stored grain cool and dry. The site has a wheelchair-accessible entrance and parking, according to Maps accessibility data. The granaries are best seen in the morning light when the cedar tones glow warmly; late afternoon shadows can hide detail between the tightly spaced structures.↗↗

No official ticket or guided-tour schedule exists — the granaries stand in an open, semi-public row, so visitors are free to walk between them and photograph from outside. If you encounter a local resident at a granary, a polite request before climbing the ladder is the right etiquette; some families still retrieve their own stores several times a year.↗

The Bigger Picture

The Lycian granary tradition once dotted the western Antalya highlands — from Elmalı to Finike, Konyaaltı to Kaş — but Bezirgan remains the sole cluster still standing in quantity. Registration in 2012 was meant to protect the row, but paradoxically brought strict restoration constraints that some owners say have slowed repairs. Meanwhile, modern villas rising near the granary line are slowly eroding the open, pastoral setting that makes the group so striking. A visit here is therefore both a reward and a reminder of how fragile vernacular architecture can be.↗↗