Things to do in Alanya

Alanya is built around a rock. A limestone headland pushes into the sea, and a Seljuk fortress covers the top of it. Everything else in town is arranged by where that rock stands.

The rock and what the Seljuks left

Alaeddin Keykubad I took the town in 1220 and made it a winter capital, which is why so much thirteenth-century work stands.

• The castle. Six and a half kilometres of wall and more than 140 towers, wrapped around the whole headland.
• Kizil Kule. The octagonal Red Tower of 1226, thirty-three metres of red brick, built to guard the harbour.
• The shipyard. A covered Seljuk tersane of five bays cut straight into the shoreline beside the tower.
• The cable car. Nine hundred metres from near the beach up to the Ehmedek quarter in about five minutes; the inner citadel is a further climb.

Two beaches and a cave between them

Cleopatra Beach runs west of the headland, named for a visit no ancient source records, and the long municipal strip runs east.

Between them sits Damlatas, a cave found in 1948 during harbour works. It holds 22C and about ninety-five per cent humidity all year, and asthma patients still sit in it by the hour. The stalactites took some fifteen thousand years.

Up the Dim valley

Ten minutes inland the Dim river comes cold out of the Taurus, and restaurants sit on platforms built over the water.

Further back, Sapadere is a 750-metre gorge with a walkway through it and water near ten degrees in August. Syedra, a small ruined city on the coast road east, usually shares the same day. The safaris and the rafting all start up here.

Practical

• The airport. Antalya is two hours west by road, which matters when a tour offers a seven o'clock hotel pickup.
• Season. April to November, with July and August near 35C and the sea about 29C; May, June, September and October are the comfortable months.
• The climb. The castle has no shade and the switchbacks are steep, so ride up and walk down.
• Hammam. A hotel spa and a town hammam are different things; the town version means scrub, foam and a hard bench.
• Prices. Alanya is the cheap end of this coast, and the first number on the bazaar street is an opening bid.
• Evenings. The bar strip near the harbour runs late, and boat parties leave from the same quay in daylight.