Camel wrestling: the Aegean's winter festival
Camel wrestling (deve guresi) is a tradition of the nomadic Turkic tribes that settled western Anatolia, and it is very much alive: around thirty festivals a season along the Aegean coast between November and March, culminating in the big one at Selcuk on the third Sunday of January, on the beach below Ephesus.
What actually happens
Two male Tulu camels - a cross bred for size and temper - are led into an arena during the winter rutting season, when males are naturally inclined to shove each other. They lean, push, trip and try to make the other sit down or run away. A bout lasts a few minutes and is stopped by the referees as soon as one camel has clearly had enough; nobody is injured, including the camels, which are valuable animals treated like racehorses. The sport is to the camels what sumo is to people.
The day
The wrestling is almost beside the point. The real event is the crowd: families on blankets with grills going, sucuk sausage smoke drifting over the field, a brass band, raki from early morning, and the camels paraded the evening before through town in embroidered saddles and bells with their names (and insults to rivals) on the harness. Twenty thousand people come to Selcuk for it, and it is the most Turkish afternoon you will spend.
Where and when
Selcuk (Pamucak beach): third Sunday of January. Other festivals rotate through Aegean towns - Kusadasi, Germencik, Bodrum, Aydin - most Sundays from November to March; the schedule appears in local papers and on the towns' websites a few weeks ahead. Demre, on the Lycian coast where the gulet stops in summer, holds one too.
How it fits with us
Our scheduled tours run April to October, so the festivals fall outside the season. If you are in Turkey in winter and want to combine Selcuk's festival with Ephesus and a few days in Istanbul or Cappadocia, ask us - we arrange private winter itineraries on request, and Selcuk in January is a very different (and empty) Ephesus.
In season, Selcuk is on day 4 to 5 of the Istanbul to Fethiye Tour and every longer route; see what to see in Selcuk.
