Muğla (pronounced moo-lah) is an inland city in Southern Aegean, Turkey.

Understand

Muğla is a pleasant city on the side of a mountain, with a population of 61,000. It has the charm of a typical inland Aegean town, and is fairly close to (and is the administrative centre of) the resort towns popular with international travellers (Bodrum, Marmaris, Fethiye). Nonetheless, travellers often overlook Muğla.

Muğla lies on an elevation of 670 m, and as such its significantly cooler climate is a welcome retreat from hot and sticky conditions of the coast. Mugla is 20 km inland.

The province is stretched along Turkey's Aegean coast has several famous holiday resorts drawing large numbers of tourists. Mugla is well connected by road to all parts of Turkey. You will have to take mini buses to travel to places off the main highways and to remoter outlying regions. Muğla proper has a subcontinental Mediterranean climate; while its summers are hot and dry, its winters are fairly chilly with heavy rains and occasional sleet. This changes as you approach the coast, however, as winter temperature average hit a rather mild 15°C, yet still with heavy rainfall.

Get in

Get around

Unlike most of the rest of the country, the basic "give way to the traffic already within" rule of roundabouts is surprisingly well understood and adhered to by the local drivers in Muğla (and there are many roundabouts within the city and on its approaches). Act accordingly.

See

Theatre masque in the museum

• Vakıflar Hamamı. An operating Turkish bath which dates back to 1258. 
• 🌍 Great Mosque of Muğla (Ulu Cami). Large mosque built in 1344 by the Beys of Menteşe. 
• 🌍 Kurşunlu Cami. Large mosque built in 1495. 
• Konakaltı Han and Yağcılar Han. Restored 18th-century caravanserais, the first used as an art gallery and facing Muğla Museum, and the second used for more commercial purposes. 
• The Ottoman Empire-era bazaar (Arasta). Marked by a clock tower built by a Greek craftsman named Filivari Usta in 1895. 
• 🌍 Muğla Museum, Müştakbey Mah. Eski Postane Cad., ☏ +90252 214 6948. Muğla City Museum has a good collection of archaeological and ethnographical artefacts, as well as 9-million-year-old animal and plant fossils discovered in Kaklıcatepe nearby. 
• The old quarter of Muğla. On the slopes and around Saburhane Square (Meydanı), consisting of about 400 registered old houses dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, many of which are restored. These houses are mainly in the Turkish/Ottoman style, characterized by hayat ("courtyard") sections accessed through double-shuttered doors called kuzulu kapı ("lamb doors") and dotted with chimneys typical of Muğla. But there are also a number of "Greek" houses. The differences between the two types of houses may have as much to do with the extent to which wood or stone were used in their architecture, and whether they were arranged in intraverted or extraverted styles, as with who inhabited them previously. Local students tend to hang out in open air cafés along the İzmir highway or in the caravanserai or in Sanat Evi ("Art House"), an Ottoman style residence that has been turned into a café/art gallery exhibiting principally wood carvings. 

Do

Buy

Eat

• Süpüroğlu, Orhaniye Mah.Süpüroğlu Mevki Karabağlar Yaylası No:56, ☏ +90252 217 6565, supuroglu@hotmail.com. 09:00-24:00. Local meat meals ££. 
• Meyzen Ocakbaşı, Pabuçcular sok.arasta-şadırvan (Saatli kule caddesi pabuççular sokak), ☏ +90533 479 7786. 11:00-24:00. Turkish Meat Restaurant ££. 
• Du Buyon, Mustafa Muğlalı Caddesi. 10:00-24:00. Local foods ££. 
• Köfteci Kemal, Şeyh Mah. Kurşunlu Camii Karşısı Otopark Girişi No:4/4, ☏ +90252 2129410. 11:00-15:00. Local meatballs ££. 
• Arabacı Restaurant Mabolla, Emirbeyazıt mah. Turgut reis cd. No:14, ☏ +902522130220. Fish and meat ££. 

Drink

Sleep

• 🌍 Teacher's House (Öğretmenevi), Cumhuriyet Cd 2/B (just south of the central square), ☏ +90 252 214-53-36, info@muglaogretmenevi.com.tr. Government-run hostel for teachers, but accepts any traveller as long as rooms are available. Clean rooms with en-suite; well-heated in winter. No carpark, and this is a very central area on a one-way grid, so you may have to circle around a bit. 195 TL including breakfast; may have discounts for the teacher's card holders. (updated Feb 2022)

Connect

Muğla and its approach roads have 4G from all Turkish carriers. As of March 2023, 5G has not rolled out in Turkey.

Go next

Many famous resort towns of the Turkish coast (Southern Aegean/Western Mediterranean) are within a radius of 100 km from Muğla:

• Bodrum — the partying capital of Turkey, which also features a well-preserved citadel
• Akyaka — a village with beautiful traditional architecture just south of Muğla, on the coast
• Marmaris — daily yacht trips along a craggy coastline
• Dalyan — rock-cut ancient tombs, boat trips through marshlands, and a sandy beach where Mediterranean turtles lay their eggs
• Fethiye — a gulf backed by mountains dotted by Lycian ruins; the postcard beauty of the Blue Lagoon is also nearby

Izmir ← Selçuk ←	N  S	→ Akyaka → END at
Bodrum ← Junction (N) ←	W  E	→ Denizli → Konya