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antalya, Türkiye —
I’ve always loved a great waterslide, but when I arrived in the legendary land of Antalya, it was the first time in years that I had stepped into a water park and stared at the Dragonfly Tower on the Turkish Riviera.
From a distance, it didn’t look that intimidating. The problem was that the closer you got, the higher it seemed.
It extends 52 meters (170 feet) into the sky, equivalent to the height of a 16-story apartment building.
The tower will open in May 2026 and is the jewel in the crown of the new Waterfly at Land of Legends, Turkey’s largest theme park located on Turkey’s southwest Mediterranean coast.
Once I started climbing I started to get really nervous. After that, it felt like I had circled the tower dozens of times, but I was still climbing the stairs. It felt more like Stairmaster training than a water park attraction. By the time I reached the top, I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, not just from the climb, but from anxiety.
The tower has three slides, and I took on the most challenging, the high-speed Emerald Blur, which is 278 meters long.
The ride is so steep that riders must wear special back supports to avoid injury when gravity is applied.
When I arrived at the entrance to the slide, I realized that the scariest part wasn’t the height. It was a trapdoor.
I stood inside the launch capsule and waited for the automatic countdown. And then the worst-case scenario happened: a false start. The countdown stopped and started again. That made it even more frightening.
Then the floor disappeared.
It takes about 56 seconds from launch to splashdown, but when you’re sliding down Europe’s tallest waterslide, time becomes meaningless.
For a moment, I felt like I was going to lose consciousness from the initial impact of the fall. I found myself hurling myself inside a giant washing machine, twisting and turning, spinning a kaleidoscope of colors created by sunlight shining through the dazzling patterns on the outside of the slide.
It was a complete mess. As I screamed my way to the bottom, water sprayed me in the face.
My first emotion wasn’t elation. I was relieved. Then pride was born. And then I had the feeling that I wanted to do it again.
Actually, I rode it five times.
Perhaps that’s the most surprising thing about Dragonfly Tower. It was scary, but somehow I was left wanting to know more, and it awakened the thrill-seeking child in me.
