Cunda Island

Cunda or Alibey Island is a small island in the northwestern Aegean Sea off the coast of Ayvalik, part of Balıkesir Province of Turkey. It is the largest island in the Ayvalik Islands group. It is close to Lesbos, Greece.Cunda is linked to Ayvalik on the mainland by a causeway. The island has a typical resort town, Alibey, and a bus and ferry link to Ayvalik. Ada Camping,a camping site at a calm part of Cunda Island is a fairly known camping site that offers bungalows as well as place for trailers.

The island’s former Greek population was expelled in the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey and was replaced by Muslims from Crete, Cretan Turks, ensuring a general sense of hospitality. The main landmark of Alibey village remains the large former Greek Orthodox cathedral, now abandoned and dilapidated.

Poroselene bay in the north of the island is probably the island’s major “sight.” In antiquity, it was the home of a dolphin who saved a drowning boy, mentioned by Pausanias.