Another castle on thre horizon!

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Sitting proudly on the peninsula of Alanya sits the castle. With the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky we set of to explore. Although possible to walk up to (quite a big walk!) Woolly refused to walk up and down so we picked up a taxi which took only a few minutes to arrive at the castle gates.

Woolly says – I’m sure all this walking isn’t good for me! It was a fun ride to the top going round the bends at speed being hardened to the mountain roads now it was a doddle! The view was spectacular, looking at Alanya spread out below us with clear blue seas and the castle in front of us, worth a photo or two. Paying 10TL (approximately £4.10 GBP) to enter we walked up the sloping road and into the castle. Reading the information board we found out that the castle was built in the 13^th Century and was built on Roman fortifications. The wall that surrounds the castle is 6.5 kilometres long!!!! It’s lit up at night and looks beautiful. There are 140 towers and 400 cisterns to spot. There are fences to stop you going into some areas but plenty of ruins to look at including a Chapel, Ian showed me where the soldiers would of slept – very dark and underground not my idea of a cosy bedroom! I counted 4 cisterns and got really excited that so many toilets were needed until Ian explained that cisterns would also hold water. We could see all the beaches we had walked along and the coastline reaching for miles into the distance, pretty cool.

Leaving the castle behind us we started the walk down the mountain, the path is signposted but quite rocky in places and good footwear is defiantly needed.

Woolly says – it was a really interesting walk, passing by further ruins and the small wooden houses perching on stilts. Following the footpath we came upon the 16th-century Süleymaniye Mosque, the sign next to it said it was the oldest Mosque in Alanya, unfortunately we couldn’t go in but it gave a real feeling of history. We continued down the winding path and found a really old house. Jo and I went in and were greeted by a lovely Turkish man who showed us round, rooms covered in the most exquisite wood carvings, the room that would have been for visitors was luxurious for the time period while the family rooms were much more basic. There was a display of three bottles which explained that depending on the way the bottle is mounted on the chimney of a house shows if they have daughters or sons to marry, the position changes after marriage takes place – cool idea you don’t have to knock on the door to see if you can have a date! We set off again passing castle walls with ever changing views to hold our attention, Jo and Ian promised me a sit down and a drink at a Bar that is perched right on the edge of mountain which has a swimming pool, sounded like a great place to cool my paws down alas it was closed until the summer season – I was not a happy mammoth.



While Woolly was sulking about his lack of drink and pool we arrived at the bottom where the Red Tower stands.



Woolly says – I did not sulk, I was thinking! I liked the cool interior of the Red Tower, built in the 13^th century it is made from red bricks as is octagonal in shape. Filled with photos of Alanya and its history and a cracking view from the top it was worth a stop off for only 5TL (approximately £1.40 GBP). Finally we settled outside a bar in the harbor to rest and Ian let me have a drink and an ice cream, contented Mammoth!

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