Damlataş Cave (Turkish: Damlataş Mağarası) is a cave in the Alanya district of Antalya Province, in southern Turkey. The cave is located west of Alanya Castle on the Mediterranean coast in Alanya. The entrance to the cave faces the beach.

History

The cave was accidentally discovered during mining activities in a quarry used for the construction of Alanya harbor in 1948. After preliminary research by two geologists, it was opened to the public.

The cave

A long cylindrical cavity measuring 50 meters by 15 meters leads to the cave’s cellar. The cave is full of stalactites and stalagmites that were formed in fifteen thousand years. The cave has an area of ​​180 – 200 m2 and a total volume of about 2500 m3 in two levels. The air in the cave contains a relatively high amount of carbon dioxide, about 10 to 12 times more than in normal air, and has a humidity of 95%. The air temperature is 22-23 ° C regardless of the season.

Cure asthma

The cave is popularly known as an “asthma-healing cave” because of its widespread belief in its ability to cure respiratory symptoms and asthma. In fact, most of the past visitors were people with asthma. More than 100,000 visitors come every year. The number of visitors with asthma is approximately 4,000. These visitors stay in the cave for four hours a day for 21 days. Between 6:00 AM and 10:00 AM local time, the cave is only open to these asthmatic visitors.

The entrance fee for tourists is approximately 1 euro.

Visit

Dripstone cave is approximately 25 minutes driving from Villa Carlijn.  You can also combine it well with the cable car, the Red Tower, Castle and old shipyard of Alanya. Combined entrance tickets are available.