at , muğla's coastline is the longest among the provinces of turkey and longer than many countries' coastlines, (even without taking any small islands into account). important is the datça peninsula. as well as the sea, muğla has two large lakes, lake bafa in the district of milas and lake köyceğiz. the landscape consists of pot-shaped small plains surrounded by mountains, formed by depressions in the neogene. these include the plain of the city of muğla itself, yeşilyurt, ula, gülağzı, yerkesik, akkaya, and yenice). until the recent building of highways, transport from these plains to either the coast or inland was quite arduous, and thus each locality remained an isolated culture of its own. contact with the outside world was through one of the three difficult passes: northwest to milas, north to the menderes plain through gökbel, or northeast to tavas.