East Gulf of Antalia

The eastern Gulf of Antalia opens from a coast shaped by two very different parts of Cilicia. Inland stand the Taurus Mountains, pierced by the Cilician Gates; farther east, passes through the Amanus range lead toward northern Syria. These few corridors give the coastal plain unusual importance.

Goods, armies and travellers approaching from Anatolia or Syria converge on Adana and Tarsus before continuing along the Mediterranean shore. East of the mountainous coast lies Plain Cilicia, centred on the broad alluvial lowland of Çukurova. The Cydnus, Sarus and Pyramus, known in that era as the Berdan, Seyhan and Ceyhan, carry water and sediment from the mountains. Their fertile plain contrasts sharply with Rough Cilicia to the west, where Taurus spurs end in rocky headlands and small harbours.

Those sheltered coves once served traders and also pirates; in the Middle Ages they became outposts for Genoese and Venetian commerce. Cilicia's position between Anatolia, Syria and Cyprus repeatedly joined its ports to wider political struggles. An Armenian kingdom emerged in the Taurus during the late eleventh century and ruled much of the region for about three centuries, trading with Italian maritime cities and cooperating with the Crusaders. The shore therefore formed more than a boundary between mountain and sea: it was a meeting place for highland routes, riverine agriculture and eastern Mediterranean shipping.