Elmalı is a town and district in Antalya Province, the Mediterranean region of Turkey. It lies about inland, near the town of Korkuteli and west of the city of Antalya. In 2007, the population for the whole district was 36.213, of which 14,038 live in the town of Elmalı. Formerly known as Kabalı and Emelas. Geography Elmalı is a small plateau at the head of a long upland valley in the Beydağları range of the western Taurus Mountains, surrounded by high peaks including the 2500m Elmalı Mountain. Aside from the town of Elmalı, the district includes two other small towns (Akçay and Yuva) as well as villages. The area is watered by streams running off the mountains. Although close to the Mediterranean, Elmalı is high in the mountains and has an inland climate of cold winters and hot summers, (although still much cooler than the coast). Near to Lake Avlan there is an area of cedar forest, rare in Turkey. Villages History Excavations, by Machteld Mellink from Bryn Mawr College, of the burial mounds of Semahöyük and Müren have shown signs of copper production dating back to 2500 BC. The area was later a key town in the north of the antique province of Lycia, and the Lycian Way trade route came through here. It was a small town of Asia Minor in the vilayet of Konia in the Ottoman era, then the administrative centre of the ancient Lycia, but not itself corresponding to any known ancient city. The plain was subsequently controlled by the Ancient Romans, Byzantines, and the Seljuk Turks. The town was the headquarters of Beylik of Teke clan of Anatolian beyliks when it was brought into the Ottoman Empire at the time of Sultan Bayezid I. It remained a key mountain stronghold in the Ottoman period and through the early years of the Turkish republic, but has declined as recent generations have left the dry mountainside for jobs on the coast or in Turkey's major cities. The district was home to a significant number of Greeks and Armenians until the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1924. Demographics According to 2010 census the town has 14.636 and its villages have 23.120 inhabitants. In 2000 the population of the town was 14.600 and the villages had 25.440 inhabitants. Elmalı has 2 municipalities (Akçay and Yuva) and 49 villages. The population of inhabited places is as follows