Insight Guides: Turkey by Insight Guides

Author:Insight Guides
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, Turkey
Publisher: APA
Published: 2015-04-20T04:00:00+00:00

About 5km (3 miles) west of town, on the southernmost tip of Asia Minor, slumber the ruins of ancient Anemurium, meaning “windy cape” (daily 8am–7.30pm; charge). Founded by the Hittites in about 1200 BC, the city became a great trading centre and Byzantine bishopric, thriving until a devastating earthquake in AD 580, followed by Arab invasions. The well-preserved ruins of the town, mainly dating from its 3rd-century heyday, are dominated by the cemetery, a vast sprawl of some 350 domed tombs. The setting and the ruins themselves are intensely atmospheric, despite the fact that they adjoin a swimming beach and picnic area.

Five km (3 miles) east of Anamur town, on the N-400, magnificent Mamure Kalesi (Anamur Castle; daily 8am–7.30pm; charge) stands romantically with one foot in the sea. The first fortress here was built in the 3rd century AD, but it has had many other incarnations: as a 10th-century pirates’ lair, and as the property of 11th- to 12th-century kings of Armenia. The surviving castle was built in 1226 by the great Seljuk Sultan Alâeddin Keykubat I; the mosque and rooms overlooking the sea from the upper battlements were added by Karamanoğlu ruler Mahmut Bey (1300–8). In the late 14th century, it became a mainland toehold for the crusading Lusignan kings of Cyprus, until it was seized by the Ottomans in 1469.

The Göksu delta

Ascending and descending in a series of hairpin turns, passing several more aesthetically pleasing but anonymous castles, the coastal road finally hits the Göksu delta near Taşucu, one of the two ferry embarkation points (the other is Mersin) for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. One hydrofoil service and one car ferry leave from here daily. Taşucu itself is a bustling ferry port with several hotels and pansiyons on the waterfront to the east of town.

About 5km (3 miles) further on, at Ayatekla (daily, Apr–Oct 8am–8pm, Nov–Mar 8am–5pm; charge) just left of the highway, a ruined Byzantine basilica towers above the underground hermitage of St Thecla, one of St Paul’s first converts. On hearing Paul preach the virtues of chastity in Iconium (Konya), she promptly renounced her betrothal; on a later visit to the Apostle in prison, she too was arrested and sentenced to be burnt at the stake and tied naked to a pyre in the arena. A divinely inspired deluge doused the flames. Wild beasts were brought in to devour her, but “there was about her a cloud, so that neither the beasts did touch her, nor was she seen to be naked”, according to Acts of Paul and Thecla, written in the 2nd century by an unknown Asian presbyter.

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