Turkey · 11th century
Şeytan Castle (Turkish: Şeytan Kalesi, Georgian: ქაჯის ციხე, romanized: kajis tsikhe) is a castle in the Çıldır district of the Ardahan Province in Turkey.
The castle is located 1.5 kilometers northeast of the village of Yıldırımtepe. The cliffs surrounding the castle were as important to its protection as its walls. The castle was used continuously from the Hellenistic era to the Ottoman period, and was renovated or modified by each of its occupiers. It hosts cisterns, a staircase that descends to the water and a chapel. The name of the castle, meaning "the Devil's castle", originates from the myth that an evil spirit or a devil was sighted in the area in the past, which still survives as a superstition among the area's inhabitants.
Ekvtime Takaishvili reported the existence of a prison in the castle. It is mentioned in the chronicles of Alp Arslan in 1064.
Text adapted from “Şeytan Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Şeytan Castle ranks #2,602 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #47 of the 129 mapped in Turkey. Founded 1064, it is older than 88% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 436 atlas entries founded in the 11th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,969 times in the last 60 days, more than 69% of the atlas. The nearest day-trip guide is Kars, 61 km away. See how Turkey compares in the castle statistics.
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