When Amanda and I were first invited to Dalyan for a villa holiday we had very negative views about Turkey and in truth we were not looking forward to the holiday apart from spending some time with our friends Charlie and Glynis at their villa, The Dalyan Jewel. Our views didn’t have any real foundation. I had never been there and Amanda’s only experience was that of Bodrum some years earlier. We had had a week in Tenerife the previous year, where many Britons opt to buy holiday homes, and said that we would never go back there. We thought Turkey was going to be the same. It was not to be, and perhaps the only similarity is the vast amount of guaranteed sunshine you get each year. Dalyan was a dream. Yes, an abundance of sunshine, but not a dry, arid place, no beaches spoiled by lots of volcanic rock. Dalyan was beautiful. 5 km of golden sand preserved for the protection of the Loggerhead Turtles, mountains and trees, with the river meandering from the Aegean to the fresh water lake. Almost everyone who visits Dalyan wants to go back there. We wanted more and decided it was there that we wanted to build our holiday home. After first securing the land we then went about putting ideas on paper and after discussions with the architect, he came up with these drawings for our approval.