Muğla is the seat of Muğla province which stretches along Turkey’s Aegean coast in the southwest of the country.
     Muğla lies around 20 km inland. It is situated at an altitude of 660 m in one of the pot-shaped small plains surrounded by mountains as formed by depressions in the Neogene (the other similar formations in the immediate neighborhood are the Yeşilyurt, Ula, Gülağzı, Yerkesik, Akkaya, Çamköy and Yenice plains). It should be added that, until the recent building of highways, contacts between these plains with either the coastal regions, or the passage into inland centers (through one of the three difficult passes; to northwest to Milas, to the north to the Menderes plain through Gökbel, or to the northeast to Tavas) were quite arduous, and the region as a whole always tended to develop its peculiarities.
     Muğla is situated approximately 85 km east of the popular tourist resort at Bodrum, and approximately 40 km north of another main tourist resort in Muğla province at Marmaris. Fethiye , yet another rising tourist venue, is further south. These towns depend on Muğla administratively.