Alaiye

Alaiye stands on a high rocky peninsula on the Mediterranean coast, enclosed by walls that descend to a sheltered harbour. Known to the Byzantines as Kalonoros, the fortress became a prized possession of the Seljuk sultans. Its citadel, cisterns and towers crown the headland, while the octagonal Red Tower guards the waterfront and the shipyard below.

In 1221 Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I took the fortress from its Armenian lord and renamed it Alaiye. He strengthened its defences, built a palace and commissioned the Red Tower in 1226. The nearby shipyard, completed in 1228, gave the sultan a place to build and maintain vessels on the Mediterranean. Its vaulted bays opened directly toward the sea, protected by the tower and the city's long circuit of walls. Large cisterns collected water on the rocky height, helping sustain the castle and its inhabitants above the harbour.

After Seljuk power declined, Alaiye passed briefly to the kingdom of Cyprus and then came under local and Karamanid rulers. In 1471 the Ottomans incorporated it into their realm, ending a succession of local rulers who had held the strategically placed port. The fortified peninsula remained a conspicuous landmark for ships following the coast, and the Seljuk buildings recalled the period when the port served both the commercial and naval ambitions of its rulers.