The Antalya Complex in southwestern Turkey lies along the Cyprus-Hatay ophiolitic belt of the Eastern Mediterranean. The Antalya Complex contains, from west to east, the autochthonous Mesozoic-Cenozoic platform carbonates of the Bey Daǧları massif and three allochthonous units: the Kumluca Complex of imbricate Mesozoic continental-margin sedimentary rocks; the Alakır Çay unit, a mélange of oceanic and carbonate margin rocks; and the Late Cretaceous Tekirova (partial) ophiolite.

One of the allochthonous units, the Alakır Çay, is interpreted here as a mélange. The Alakır Çay unit contains a great variety of clasts, derived from continental margin to pelagic environments. Ophiolitic rocks are the most conspicuous component. The matrix varies from pelagic marls to pillow-basalt flows and serpentinite and is essentially absent locally. The Alakır Çay mélange contains ophiolitic debris of probable Late Cretaceous age and is overlain by a conglomerate sequence with clasts containing a Maestrichtian fauna.

The Alakır Çay mélange formed during obduction in front of advancing ophiolite sheets, thrust over a relatively flat foreland of the Kumluca continental margin. The initiation of deformation is assumed to be a result of thrusting related to compression. The mélange movement took place as submarine slides that successively occupied flysch basins developed in front of the advancing thrust mass during Late Cretaceous time. The Alakır Çay mélange was emplaced on the Bey Daǧları autochthon during the late Miocene.