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Published: October 15th 2010
Anavarza Castle
Susan and watchman sitting on the edgePreamble: some of you will know that one of us is a bit of a castle anorak and we have travelled the world seeing piles of stones from Spanish forts in Cuba through to marvellous Crusader castles in Syria and east to Japan and many (many) places in between. This trip was to see some of the castles and other sites/ sights in the area of Turkey around the top right/north east corner of the Mediterranean.
This area has many ruins from the Hittites, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Armenians before the Mamelukes/Ottomans finally extinguished the Cilician Armenian kingdom in the 1370s.
We were only here for a week so the challenge was to see lots but not get "not another bloody castle ruin" fatigue or spend too much time in the car. Lots of versions of the trip were sketched out until we came to a rough idea of a route that would take us from Adana to a fair number of places, around and back - this would have been easier if not for the heavy extra charge if we wanted to have a one way car rental and fly back from another city. The scale of our
Sis/Kozan - looking south
from the royal apartments enterprise/my ambition to see everything was reduced to take account of the fact that we could not simply teleport between locations. We also realised that the castles had been there for hundreds of years and they would be there for a year or two more if we decided to return.
Eventually we booked flights with Turkish Airlines and a hotel for the first night in Adana and left the rest "flexible".
Sun 3 October. London to Adana.
The flight to Istanbul with Turkish Airlines was fine except that it was at the horrible time of 06.55 and we had been out to the theatre on the night before so about four hours sleep had to do. I imagine we looked as fresh as all the other passengers at 05.30. Anyway the plabe was on time and we duly transferred onto the next leg to Adana. The latter part of this flight crossed the mountains before we descended across the green Cukcorova plain, arriving on time and relieved that our bags had also made the transfer.
Adana was hot, a nice 30c at 4pm. We then experienced our first Turkish Taxi ride: if you have not had one
Yilan Kale - main gate
from the approach path of these try to imagine a cross between a Tom Cruise style Mission Impossible car chase and no contact dodgems. Our driver was an expert and delivered us downtown in no time and with only a mildly elevated heart rate.
After a very friendly welcome at the hotel - to be repeated where ever we went - we headed out for a leg stretch and to start to get an idea about where we were. Adana is a big city with a population of over a million people. Downtown was very busy with shops and street traders. We got our bearings and then had a siesta before dinner. We walked into a local restaurant and felt as if we were getting royal treatment. Simple laminated menu with pictures so even our limited Turkish sufficed. Whatever you ordered was preceded by a range of tasty salads. No alcohol on offer so I opted for a salgam. Once tasted and perhaps never forgotten this concoction of turnip juice, carrot juice and vinegar is a local speciality. I didn't have another. Susan went for the Ayram - drinking yoghurt. The Adana Kebab was spicy and tasty.
Mon 4 Oct. Adana to
Yumurtalik
After breakfast we went to the tourist office and picked up a good city map together with a glossy publication about the province - even more things to see. We then decided to go and pick up our hire car. Unfortunately the company (Hertz) had moved and were not at the address they had emailed us a few days earlier. Our poor taxi driver then went around the whole local area asking anyone who stood still for more than three seconds if they knew where Hertz was. Eventually we did find the office and some time later, after giving the Hetrz rep a lift to the airport, we hit the road to Kozan.
Kozan (formerly the Cilician Sis) lies on the edge of the mountains about 70 km north east from Adana. As we drove through fields of cotton and corn the castle came into view some 10 or 15 km before we reached it. When we reached Kozan we spotted a sign and then drove up (and up) on a new road up to a small car park below the castle gate. A local driver managed to overtake us less than 100 m before the car park
(why?)
Sis castle sits on a fairly narrow ridge about 300m above the town. Coming from the health and safety conscious UK where we are used to paying to see ruins it was something of a surprise to find both that entrance was free and that the serious drops and other hazards were not fenced or signed. Using my 1950s plan we managed to work out roughly what was what.
After an hour or so of happy wandering we descended to have a cup of tea or icecream at the castle cafe. The cafe owner came and practiced his English with us and then closed up and cadged a lift down the hill. We left town heading south east to Anavarza. This spectacular site was clearly visible from a long way away, on a high outcrop rising from the plain - it had been in view from Sis. As we trundled slowly through the small village at the bottom of the hill we were flagged down by the village museum watchman who offered to show us around the ruins. We took up his offer and together we meandered up through the Roman necropolis to reach the first wall
of the castle. We then crossed to the sad ruins of a small Armenian church before walking on, enjoying great views on all sides with a birds eye view on the Roman ruins below. The diciest moment was when we climbed down into the rock cut ditch at the narrowest part of the ridge before clambering up a ladder to the square tower sitting astride the ridge. The drop down to the plain from the ledge at the top of the ladder left of the tower was impressive, and the space a bit too narrow for lingering. After more happy exploring of this upper castle we started on the return descent - punctuated by Susan tripping and grazing her knees. We walked down an ancient rock cut stairway past the outline of the Roman Theatre. We saw no other visitors. A fabulous place and a shame we could not spend time exploring the Roman ruins as well - next time.
No time for a cup of tea we had a quick look at the local museum's mosaics, still in the ground, before hitting the road to Yumartalik as the light faded. We arrived in this small seaside town as
Anavarza
looking to upper castle from outside eastern gate the sun set and booked ourselves into one of the two hotels near the harbour. Room overlooked the sea and the beach. We went in search of dinner and ended up at a restaurant overlooking the harbour. No menu but the owner offered us fish and salads, these turned out to be great and were washed down with copious water and a bottle of wine. Everything was quiet and we guessed early October was very much the tailend of the season - even though the weather was glorious.
Day 3 Yilan Kale
We decided that we would like to stay by the sea for another night so adjusted our day to spend time exploring the locality. So after the standard breakfast of tea, bread, cheese, olives and hard boiled egg (for one of us) we booked another night and then left for Yilan Kale castle.
Yilan looms on its rock above the main roads east from Adana as they approach Ceyhan. Here there was a nice gentle(ish) road up to a car park and cafe and even a paved path - for the first 50m. Accompanied by two local dogs we walked up to the outer gate and
Anavarza - Frankish tower
from rock cut ditch on ridge realised that this would be a scramble as the castle still towered above. There was no longer a real path just bits of rock that were more worn than others. The hands and knees climb up made reaching the main gate that bit more satisfying - only one of the dogs had long enough legs to get this far. The castle rides high above the plain and has far reaching views. We enjoyed wandering around with my ancient plan. As you might guess we had the place to ourselves. The climb down was a bit more challenging but we made it back to the cafe in one piece.
Next stop was a drive by viewing of Tumlu castle - it was too hot to climb another hill today. We returned to Yumurtalik and enjoyed the seafront and the harbour in daylight - and seeing the land and sea castles. After a sun induced siesta we returned to the same restaurant for a very similar dinner, again really good.
Next stop Baghras and Antakya.
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