Korikos

Corycus commands a harbour on the rugged coast of Cilicia. Two fortresses protect the anchorage: one on the mainland and another on a small island just offshore. The ruins of the ancient city and its churches extend behind them, overlooking a shore where mountain spurs descend toward the Mediterranean.

In the fourteenth century the port became a refuge for Armenians facing the advance of the Mamluks and Türkmen powers. Peter I of Cyprus took Corycus in 1361, making the harbour an outpost of the Lusignan kingdom across the sea. Its island castle helped sustain that connection, but in the mid-fifteenth century the town passed to the Karamanids. Further changes of rule brought Corycus eventually into the Ottoman realm. The paired castles remained conspicuous witnesses to the importance of this small harbour.