Turkey · 3rd century BC
Kadifekale (literally "the velvet castle" in Turkish) is a hilltop castle in İzmir, Turkey. The castle is located on the Mount Pagos (Greek: Πάγος, Pagus under the Roman Empire) which has an elevation of 186 metres. It was built in the 3rd century BC. The castle is located at a distance of about 2 km from the shoreline and commands a general view of a large part of the city of İzmir, as well as of the Gulf of İzmir.
In 2007, the metropolitan municipality of İzmir started renovation and restoration works in Kadifekale. In 2020, Kadifekale became a Tentative World Heritage Site as part of "The Historical Port City of Izmir."
Text adapted from “Kadifekale” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Kadifekale ranks #1,726 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #38 of the 129 mapped in Turkey. Founded c. 250 BC, it is older than 99% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 11 atlas entries founded in the 3rd century BC. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,561 times in the last 60 days, more than 75% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Turkey compares in the castle statistics.
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