Alanya Castle
Seljuk Fortress Of Alaeddin Keykubad I, 1226, With 6.5 Km Of Wall And 140 Towers On A Rock Peninsula; On The UNESCO Tentative List With The Red Tower And The Shipyard · Alanya, Antalya
A rock peninsula shoulders out into the Mediterranean at Alanya and a Seljuk sultan fortified the whole of it: six and a half kilometres of wall, a hundred and forty towers, and an inner castle on the summit, built from 1226 after Alaeddin Keykubad took the town and made it his winter capital. Down at the harbour stands the Red Tower, an octagonal brick keep of the same campaign, and beside it the only Seljuk shipyard still standing anywhere - five vaulted bays open to the sea where galleys were built. The walls climb from there to a summit two hundred and fifty metres up with the whole coast underneath. The town below is a different matter: Alanya is one of the biggest package-holiday resorts in the country with large resident foreign communities, and the strip along the beach has nothing to do with the fortress above it. Both things are true at once, and the cable car from the beach spares you the climb between them.
Kale Mahallesi, Alanya Kalesi, Alanya, Alanya, Antalya, Turkiye
Open daily with longer summer hours and an earlier winter close. The castle is a large hill with several ticketed areas - the inner castle, the Red Tower and the shipyard have had separate arrangements at different times. A cable car runs up from the beach side and a road serves the top. Check which sections are open and whether one ticket covers them.