Kemah

Kemah stands on the southern bank of the Karasu, the western Euphrates, beneath a formidable fortress on a rocky height. Known to Armenians as Kamakha, it was an ancient royal burial place and later a frontier stronghold contested by Byzantines and Muslim powers. The river and the cliffs gave the castle strong natural defences along the route through the upper Euphrates valley.

At the end of the fourteenth century Kemah belonged to the lord of Erzincan, Mutahharten. Ottoman Sultan Bayezid seized the fortress in 1401, but Timur recovered it during his campaign against him. The castle subsequently passed among regional rulers before the Ottomans captured it in 1515. Its command of the valley ensured that Kemah remained an important fortified centre under Ottoman rule.