Anavarza

Anavarza rises from the Cilician plain on a long, imposing rock. Below the fortress lie the remains of ancient Anazarbus, once a major city and the capital of the Roman province of Cilicia Secunda. Its walls, colonnaded streets and monuments testify to a prosperous urban centre, while the height above offered a commanding view across the surrounding plain.

Armenian rulers turned the rocky summit into a formidable stronghold. Prince Toros I made Anavarza a seat of his power in the early twelfth century, and the castle contained churches and chapels associated with the ruling house. The church of Toros reused an inscription from the older Byzantine town, bringing ancient stone into a new Armenian monument. In the fourteenth century Mamluk campaigns destroyed the remaining Armenian kingdom of Cilicia. The ancient city declined, but its walls and the castle on the height continued to mark the plain.