Anamur

Anamur occupies a narrow coastal plain beneath the Taurus, near a cape projecting into the Mediterranean. The ancient city of Anemurium stood beside the sea, its walls, baths and necropolis recalling an earlier port on the route along the Cilician coast. To the east, the towers and walls of Mamure Castle guard the shore, enclosing courtyards and a mosque within their massive circuit.

The castle incorporates work from several periods. According to the inscription preserved in local accounts, the Karamanid ruler Mahmud Bey captured and restored it in the early fourteenth century, giving it the name Mamure. Later rulers maintained and altered the fortress, whose position commanded the coastal road and the anchorage. Its walls show how the rulers of this mountainous shore invested in the defence of a place exposed to attacks from the sea.