Kozan Castle

Kozan Castle (Medieval: Sis Castle Turkish: Kozan Kalesi) is a castle in Kozan, Adana Province, Turkey.

The castle is situated on a 400 metres (1,300 ft) high hill at 37°26′30″N 35°48′35″E. 130 metres (430 ft) high Kozan city is just to the north of the castle. All nearby castles (like Anavarza Castle and Yılankale) are observable from Kozan castle.

There is no record of fortifications at the site prior to the Byzantine period. In 705 an Arab attack on the town was repelled, but its Christian population later abandoned the settlement and Sis became a fortified frontier post of the Abbasid's. In 962 a Byzantine army under Nikephoros II Phokas recaptured Sis, but nothing is known about its subsequent history until its capture in 1113 by Toros I, ruler of Cilician Armenia. After Kozan was captured by the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, the city became its capital after the capital was transferred from Anavarza sometime between 1180 and 1190.

Text adapted from “Kozan Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Kozan Castle ranks #3,890 of 5,479 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #72 of the 107 mapped in Turkey. See how Turkey compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗