Geography
Between the Taurus Mountains to the north, and the sandy beaches of the Mediterranean coast, much of the district is flat. This is good farmland and agriculture is well-developed in Manavgat, keeping livestock and growing crops including grains, sesame and many fruits and vegetables; in recent years olives have been planted. There is no industry except for food-processing, so apart from agriculture the local economy depends on tourism.

The mountains are covered in forest and typical Mediterranean shrubs, there are small plains higher in the mountains too, traditionally used for summer grazing by the yörük nomads. Manavgat has a Mediterranean climate of hot, dry summers and warm, wet winters; the temperature rarely drops to freezing. The district is watered by the Manavgat River, which is dammed for hydro-electric power in two places. In 2001 plans began to export water from these reservoirs to Israel and other Mediterranean countries including Malta and Cyprus; as of 2006 these plans are on hold.


History
The antique cities of Side and Selge date back to the 6th century BC. Manavgat was taken over by the Seljuk Turks in 1220 and the Ottoman Empire in 1472.


Tourism
With 64 kilometres (40 mi) of hot, sunny coastline, much of it sandy beaches, with a long river and the waterfall, well-protected countryside including mountain and forest, Manavgat has an important tourist industry. There is plenty of accommodation on the coast and many places to explore including historical sites, rivers, streams and caves. And there is the sea itself including the odd experience of swimming from fresh water into the salt sea at the rivermouth. Predictably the cuisine includes fish from the Mediterranean.

The huge influx of visitors every year is changing the shape of traditionally conservative Manavgat considerably; there are bars, discos, and all kinds of youth culture which 20 years ago would have been unthinkable. The villages of Kumköy and Ilıca on the coast are particularly lively.

The town of Manavgat has grown rapidly and chaotically, mainly with cheap apartment buildings, and the roads and other services are struggling to keep up. While keen to exploit the opportunity to the last cent, the people here are resisting the effect of foreign visitors on their traditional lifestyle as much as they can; the evening air is full of the sound of gangs of young men charging around in noisy Tofaş automobiles blasting Arabesque pop music at high volume.


Places of interest
Köprülü Kanyon - in the middle of a forested national park; the canyon is popular for river-rafting.
The antique cities of:
Side, with its theatre and port.
Seleucia (Pamphylia) - visited by Alexander the Great
Selge
Manavgat Waterfall, and another smaller waterfall on the river.
Oymapinar Dam
 

Oymapinar Dam



Impounds Manavgat River
Height 157 m
Opening date 1984
Reservoir information
Capacity 676 000 m³
Surface area 4.7 km²
Geographical Data
Coordinates 36°54′N, 31°32′E
Oymapinar Dam is an arch dam built on the Manavgat river in Turkey in 1984. It is an arch dam in design, 185 m in height, built to generate hydroelectric power.

Oymapınar Dam is located 12 km north of Manavgat Waterfall. It is an artificial, freshwater dam with a capacity of 300 million cubic meters.[2] It is 23 km upstream of Manavgat town 40 km east of city of Antalya in southern Turkey and located on the Manavgat River which runs into the Mediterranean.

Description
The dam has four underground turbines with a total capacity of 540 megawatts. When built in 1984 it was the third largest dam in Turkey. As more dams have been built, it is the fifth largest.

Because of the arch design, the force of water pushing against the dam compacts the dam and strengthens it. The weight of the dam structure pushs it down firmly into the underlying rock. This design is ideal for dams built in rocky narrow gorges.[3]

Construction
The dam was built by Bilfinger Berger and completed in 1984[4].

Technical Data
Purpose - Energy
Embankment type - Concrete arch
Storage volume - 300 billion m3
Crest length - 454 m
Spillway - 2,800 m³/s
Bottomoutlet - 350 m³/s
Power - 540 MW
Annual production - 1620 000 mwh/year