Anamur (Mamure kalesi)

My favorite place in the whole of Turkey: a huge, rambling castle on the sea shore. Its origins are said to have been in Roman times but it was mainly built by the Armenian kingdom in the 12th century and was later used as a defensive fortress by the Ottomans right up to the 19th century. It has suffered many crude and ugly repairs over the years and despite those had become attractively dilapidated, but is recently going to the other extreme with a restoration in the Disneyworld “better-than-new” style.

The castle is at one end of a beach several kilometers long. At the other end is the ancient site of Anamurium. That’s mostly a depressing collection of broken old tombs, though I did find some ancient mosaics buried in the sand.

The coast roads leading to west and east are both wonderfully beautiful, passing through wild mountain scenery with magnificent sea views amid the smell of pine forests. Apart from the town of Anamur, which is expanding year by year, the immediate area is so rugged and undeveloped that there are few other places to stop and few hotels.