Explore Alanya

The Red Tower is an octagonal defence tower at Alanya's harbour, completed in 1226 under the Seljuk sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I to guard the shipyard; the architect Ebu Ali came from Aleppo. Its upper storeys are of red brick, which gives it its name. The tower is 33 metres high, houses an ethnographic museum and appears on the city's flag.

Alanya Archaeological Museum opened in 1967 and was rearranged in 2012. Its halls trace the region's past from the Bronze Age onwards, with a 2nd-century bronze statue of Heracles, coins, glass, jewellery and a section on ships and seafaring, while sarcophagi, ash chests and inscriptions stand in the garden.

Damlataş Cave lies on the west side of Alanya's castle peninsula, its entrance facing Damlataş beach. It was found in 1948 while stone was quarried for the harbour; a passage about 50 metres long leads down into chambers hung with stalactites and stalagmites, where the air stays at about 22 °C and very humid all year.

Alanya Shipyard was built in 1228 under the Seljuk sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I at the water's edge below the castle walls, south of the Red Tower. Five vaulted bays, each 7.7 metres wide and up to 43 metres deep, open onto the sea; beside them are a prayer room, an office room and, on the rock above, the Tophane, a tower where cannon were cast.

Alanya Castle crowns the rocky peninsula above the city, about 250 metres above the sea. Most of it was built after the Seljuk sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I took the town in 1221, on Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine foundations; its 6.5 km of walls with 140 towers enclose the inner citadel, cisterns, a Byzantine chapel, mosques and old Alanya houses.

Dim Cave is a karst cave about 11 km east of Alanya, set 232 metres above sea level on the western slope of the Cebel Reis mountain. A lit walkway leads 360 metres through halls of stalactites, stalagmites and columns to a small lake at the far end. A private company opened the cave to visitors in 1998.