ALANYA was established on a small peninsula with the Taurus Mountains in the north and the Mediterranean in the south. Since it was located on the line between Pamphylia and Cilicia in ancient times, the flannel Pamphylia was sometimes called Cilicia. There is no definite information about the first settlement of Alanya. Prof Dr Kılınç KÖKTEN's researches in Kadıini Cave, located 12 km from the city center in 1957, show that the history of the region dates back to the Upper Paleolithic (20,000,-17,000 BC).

ALANYA CASTLE

Alanya Castle, whose walls are 6.5 kilometers long, is on the peninsula rising up to 250 meters from the sea... The settlement on the Alanya peninsula, also known as Kandeleri, dates back to the Hellenistic period, but its historical texture is a 13th century Seljuk work. The castle was built by the Seljuk Sultan Alaaddin Keykubat, who took the city and had it rebuilt in 1221. The castle has 83 towers and 140 bastions. Nearly 400 cisterns were built to provide water for the city, which was settled inside the walls in the Middle Ages. Some of the cisterns are still used today.

RED TOWER

At Alanya Harbor. The octagonal planned structure, which is the symbol of the city, is a 13th century Seljuk work. It was built in 1226 by the builder Ebu Ali Reha el Kettani from Aleppo, who built the Sinop Castle by the Seljuk Sultan Alaaddin Keykubat. Since it was difficult to lift the stone blocks after a certain height during the construction, the upper part was made of baked red bricks and therefore it was named Kızılkule. There are marble blocks from the ancient times on the tower walls. The tower, which has an octagonal plan and each wall is 12.5 meters wide, is 33 meters high and 29 meters in diameter. It has five floors, including the ground floor. The top of the tower is accessed by a stone staircase with 85 steps at high intervals. The sunlight that the tower receives from the top reaches up to the first floor. There is a cistern in the middle of the tower. The tower was built to protect the port and shipyard against attacks from the sea and was used for military purposes for centuries. The tower, which was repaired in the 1950s, was opened to visitors in 1979 and its first floor was converted into the Ethnography Museum.

SHIPYARD

Six years after the Seljuk Sultan Alaaddin Keykubat took the city, its construction was started near Kızılkule in 1227 and was completed in a year. The sea-facing façade of the shipyard, which consists of five arched cells, is 56.5 meters and its depth is 44 meters. The location chosen for the shipyard is planned to make the most of daylight. The inscription on the entrance gate of the shipyard bears the coat of arms of Sultan Keykubat and is decorated with rosettes. Alanya Shipyard is the first shipyard of the Seljuks in the Mediterranean. Alaaddin Keykubat, who had the Sinop Shipyard built in the Black Sea before, took the title of "sultan of two seas" with Alanya Shipyard. There is a mosque on one side of the shipyard and a guard room on the other. In one of the eyes there is a well that has been blinded in time. Access to the Shipyard, which can be reached by boat from the sea or by walking from the walls next to the Red Tower, is free of charge.

ARMORY

Adjacent to the Shipyard is Tophane, which was built on a rock 10 meters high from the sea to protect the shipyard. It is known that cannons were poured for warships in the three-storey and rectangular planned structure, which was built in 1227 from cut stone. Work continues to transform the Shipyard and Tophane into a Maritime Museum by the Ministry of Culture and Alanya Municipality.