Karain Cave

Karain Cave is among the largest natural caves in Türkiye, 430-450 metres above sea level, in the territory of Yağca village about 30 km north-west of Antalya. Excavations have run since 1946. They show that people were living here around 500,000 years ago, making it the largest cave inhabited by humans in Türkiye and an important Palaeolithic centre for Anatolia and the Near East.

The cave gives an unbroken record of the Lower, Middle and Upper Palaeolithic and was still used up to Roman times, leaving a cultural layer 11 metres deep. Finds include stone and bone tools, beads and some of the earliest examples of Anatolian art. Bones of rhinoceros, elephant and hippopotamus, species no longer found in Anatolia, have been recovered. Plant and animal remains also help show the ancient environment of the western Mediterranean.

Some finds are shown in the Karain Museum next to the cave, and others in Antalya Museum. Votive inscriptions on the outer walls from the Roman period suggest the cave was used to worship a mountain goddess. The cave also draws attention for stalactites and stalagmites formed over hundreds of thousands of years, and it is on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.