Turkey · 13th century
Alara Castle ranks #4,038 of 9,040 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #56 of the 128 mapped in Turkey. Founded 1232, it is older than 72% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 1091 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,125 times in the last 60 days, more than 54% of the atlas. See how Turkey compares in the castle statistics.
The Alara Castle (Turkish: Alara Kalesi), is a historic fortification located at Alanya district of Antalya Province in southern Turkey.
The castle was built under the Byzantine Empire, and in the 11th century became the western outpost of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (1080-1375). It had the function to safeguard the caravans from holdup robberies that were stopping over at the last caravanserai Alarahan on the Silk Road to the sea, situated 300–400 m (980–1,310 ft) in the south. The castle incorporates a citadel inside the outer walls. The castle's inside is reached by some 180-step stairway, which is tunneled in the rock. Around the middle of the stairway, a deepening opens to a cistern. In the citadel, a palace, accommodation facilities for the garrison, a mosque and a bath are among the ruins.
It is located 35 km (22 mi) southeast of Manavgat, 37 km (23 mi) northwest of Alanya and 7 km (4.3 mi) away from the Mediterranean Sea. Situated atop a steep massive rock at the east bank of Alara River, the castle was hard to win. The lord of the castle gave it however up in 1231 as he realized that Seljuk Sultan of Rum Alaeddin Keykubad I (reigned 1220–1237) had conquered Alanya.
The regional government of Antalya considered in 2011 the restoration of Alara Castle and its subsequent opening to the public as a place of interest.
Text adapted from “Alara Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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