Alanya, which has one of
the most remarkable views on Turkey's south coast, lies on a
rocky peninsula jutting into the sea. It possesses interesting
houses, sheer precipices, and fortification walls.
The first known
settlement founded on the site of present day Alanya was Coracesium,
meaning rock. This city was sometimes included in the province
of Cilicia, sometimes in Pamphylia. Strabo, proceeding west
to east in his description of Cilicia, starts with Coracesium,
describing it as a castle set on a steep cliff.
Due to its ideal harbour and eminently
defensible situation, this site served in almost every
period as a pirate's or rebel's den. For this reason
it was the only Cilician city to resist Antiochos III
in 199 B.C. A half century later, Diodotos Trypon, the
local ruler, also refused to remain allied with Antiochos
VII. Piracy in the Mediterranean in the first century
B.C. was a great economic and political problem for
the Roman Empire; the seizure of grain ships by pirates
reached such proportions that it threatened even Rome
with widespread hunger.
For this reason, Puplius Servius was sent
to Cilicia in 78 B.C., and organized a series of campaigns
against the pirates, but the was ultimately unsuccessful.
Next he was empowered by the Roman Senate in 65 B.C.,
and he subdued all of the pirate strongholds by attacking
them both by land and by sea. Coracesium, was the last
to fall, and in the process not only was the pirate fleet
destroyed, but the city's fortification walls were pulled
down and the stones pitched into the sea.
During the Roman imperial era, Coracesium must have become
a large city, for in the second century it began for the
first time to mint coinage in its own name.
Not much is known about Coracesium in the first centuries
of Christendom and the early Byzantine period. Together
with its neighbours Cilicia and Pamphylia, it must have
accepted Christianity at an early date.
This period, too, witnessed a change in the name of the
site; it became known as Kalonoros or Beautiful Mountain.
This name continued to be employed in various permutations
well into the Middle Ages. Even after its conquest by
the Turks, the city was known by the Venetians, Genoese,
and Cypriots under the rubric Candelor, Scandelore, or
Galenorum.
As soon as the Rum Seljuk sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I (reigned
1220-1237) ascended the throne, his first strategic ploy
was to move against this castle. On securing its surrender
from its ruler Kyr Vard, he affixed his own name to the
town, calling it Alaiye. Its proximity to the Seljuk capital
of Konya as well as Alaeddin's harbour improvements, assured
the town's rapid development. Because the sultan wintered
in Alanya, the town witnessed much construction activity,
and was provided with the wonderful buildings we see today.
After the collapse of the Seljuk state,
this area passed into the control of the Karaminids
and was sometimes administered by local rulers swearing
allegiance to them. Often the Lusignan kings of Cyprus
tried to lay hands on Alanya, and the Turks and the
Egyptians used it as a base from which to invade Cyprus.
With the rise of the Ottoman Empire, commerce in the
eastern Mediterranean declined, and Alanya lost most
of its former importance. Today, Alanya is one of the
best preserved of all Seljuk cities.
The eastern section of the Alanya castle
borders the sea and is protected at the site of its conjunction
with the northern wall, by a large octagonal tower known
as Kizil Kule, or the Red Tower. This tower is 29 metres
in diameter and 33 metres high. Despite its simple exterior,
the tower's interior consists of a series of defensive
systems combined with a complex five-storey plan. The
two lower storeys of the upper portion is built of reddish
bricks, giving rise to the tower's name. Inscriptions
record that this tower was built for Alaeddin Keykubad
in 1226 by the architect Abu Ali of Aleppo. The tower
was restored between the years 1951 and 1957.
Some 150 metres to the south of the Red Tower, lies the
sole surviving Seljuk tersane or naval yard. The total
area of 57x40 metres is divided by walls into five vaulted
spaces. Each one of these is connected to the others by
four doorways with pointed arches; these interior spaces
were large enough to serve as construction areas for medieval
ships. The tersane is entered from the direction of the
Red Tower. The entrance carries a five-line inscription
attributing the construction of the naval yard to Alaeddin
Keykubad in the year 1227. The first line reads, "Victory
for God and early conquest" (Koran LXI, 13). A small
room to the right of the entrance may have been used as
a storeroom, or perhaps a mosque for workmen in the naval
yard, although there is no mihrab niche present to indicate
the direction of Mecca. A room to the left is lit by daylight
and was probaly used as an office.
To the south of the naval yard rises
a two-storey tower (called today the Tophane) designed
to protect it from landward or seaward attack. This
square tower; 19 metres in height, was erected on a
high cliff. The ground floor is divided into four vaulted
rooms by interior walls. The upper floor takes the form
of an open room surrounded by vaulted bays. The north
walls, starting from the Red Tower, stretch up to a
fortified area known as the Ehmedek.
Built on the ruins of earlier Hellenistic
fortifications, two structures, each possessing three
towers, form a highly irregular plan. The principal entrance
is from a large gate to the east. From here one climbs
stairs to a small tower. Immediately inside the entrance
lies a large amorphous open area with cisterns. Further
on are three large rooms. Scratched in the plaster near
a window of the eastern room are representations of pre-contemporary
sailing boats. The middle room probably served as a residence
hall, and the small domed room in north-west corner was
its bath. The north face of the base tower of the Ehmedek
contains a beautiful inscription dating to 1227, during
the reign of Alaeddin Keykubad.
If one goes due south from the Ehmedek, one encounters
the Süleymaniye mosque. This mosque is divided into two
main areas; a square main chamber surmounted by a dome,
and in front of it, a porch with three domes separated
by arches. The domes are made of brick, and the walls
of ashlar masonry as well as brick. At the north-west
corner of the mosque rises a duodecagonal minaret.
South from the mosque is a caravanserai consisting of
a wide courtyard surrounded by rooms for travellers and
merchants. The wide vaulted section behind the rooms was
used for animals.
The Aksebe Türbe or tomb lies above the caravanserai.
The principal building was a single-domed until build
of reddish brick. Adjacent to the domet space and along
its eastern face lie another similar domed area and a
vaulted room. A small minaret decorated with blue tiles
rises to the north-east of the door to the structure.
The citadel lies at the highest point
of the castle and is in the form of an irregular rectangle
180x150 metres. The original buildings of this area
were built against three sides of the surrounding fortification
wall. The western side required a less substantial wall
because of its proximity to a sheer drop. Two big cisterns
built of brick lie in the middle of this space. If one
takes into account the castle's historical importance,
a place should have existed in this area, but so far
no such building has been found among the ruins evident
in the citadel.
If it did exist, however, it was most probably
situated in the south-east corner, since this area contains
much collapsed building debris and traces of painted frescoes.
A Byzantine church can also be seen here in the citadel,
undisturbed by the construction around it. The church
has a cross-shaped plan, surmounted at the crossing by
a high dome on pendentives. A few remains of frescoed
figures are still to be seen in the side apses and on
the pendentives.
A small chapel built on the southern fortification wall
bears witness to the three principal phases of occupation
at Alanya. This structure, known today as Arap Evliyasi
(Arab Saint), was built during the Byzantine period on
top of the ruins of a Hellenistic tower. In Seljuk times
the church was incorporated into the defensive wall, with
a crenelated parapet carefully built above it. The church,
entered from the east, is surmounted by a low dome made
of brick, and can be dated on stylistic grounds to the
eleventh century A.D. This structure was subsequently
used as a mosque.
