Kapan

Kapan, also known as Geben or Meyremçil, was a fortress in the mountains north of Cilicia, in the Andırın country near Maraş. Its position above the Geben valley commanded an important approach into Çukurova. The stronghold belonged to a landscape of neighbouring castles and difficult routes between the Anatolian interior and the Mediterranean plain.

In 1345 Karaca Bey of the Dulkadir principality took the castle from its Armenian holders. His Mamluk overlords demanded that he surrender the captured places, creating a dispute that enabled Armenian power to return in 1346. The episode shows how control of one mountain fortress could involve local rulers, the Armenian frontier and the Mamluk authorities together. Under Ottoman rule the nearby settlement appears in a survey of 1526 as Kal'a-i Geben, a village in the Andırın subdistrict of Maraş. The record counted 112 households and noted a market, giving a glimpse of civilian life beside the fortified route.