Antalya Kaleici Old Town

Protected Historic Urban Site Within The Roman And Ottoman Walls; Hadrian'S Gate Of AD 130 Is Its Principal Monument · Antalya, Antalya

Kaleici is the walled core Antalya grew out of - a wedge of narrow lanes between a Roman harbour and the modern city, with Ottoman-Greek timber houses leaning over the streets, most of them now boutique hotels, and a working marina at the bottom where gulets take visitors out along the cliffs. Hadrian's Gate is the landmark: three marble arches put up for the emperor's visit in AD 130, still the pedestrian way in, with the original Roman road surface exposed below the modern level so you can see how far the city has risen. Above it the Yivli Minare, a fluted Seljuk minaret of the thirteenth century, is the city's symbol. The old town is small enough to cross in fifteen minutes and dense enough to get lost in for two hours, and it sits on a cliff with the Bey mountains across the bay - which is the view people remember rather than any single building in it. In winter those mountains are snow-capped and the lanes are empty.

Kaleici, Muratpasa, Antalya, Antalya, Antalya, Turkiye

An inhabited district, open at all hours and free to walk into through any of its gates. Individual museums, hamams, the marina boat operators and the restaurants keep their own hours, and much of the nightlife runs late. Shops and cafes thin out considerably between November and March.

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