The Seljuk stair tunnels
A rock-cut stairway turned into dark tunnels you climb by torchlight, at once the heart of the experience and the reason for caution.
Volker Höhfeld — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Tanya Dedyukhina — CC BY 3.0 · Tanya Dedyukhina — CC BY 3.0 · Tanya Dedyukhina — CC BY 3.0
The way up Alara Castle runs inside the mountain rather than over it: a stairway the Seljuks cut into the cliff eight centuries ago has become a string of dark, partly collapsed tunnels that you climb by torchlight with one hand on the rock. That is the place in a sentence. A ruined fortress on a spur some 200 metres above the Alara river, roughly 37 km west of Alanya, taken by Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad in the early 1220s, soon after Alanya fell, and rebuilt around 1232 to guard the caravan road between Konya and the coast. The easy half of the visit sits at the foot of the hill. Alara Han, the caravanserai the same sultan built in 1231, is among the best-preserved Seljuk hans in Anatolia: fully restored, with a restaurant, vaulted halls, a long corridor lined with rooms and stables, the remains of a small mosque and a fountain. You pay a token fee (around 40 TL in 2025) at the restaurant across the road and walk through an underpass to get in. This part suits everyone, children and grandparents included. The castle is another story. No tickets, no wardens, no railings, no shade, no water. You drive about a kilometre past the han, then go on foot through the rock-cut tunnels and finish with a rough scramble to the summit, 30 to 45 minutes each way. Up top are walls, the shell of a small palace, a bath, cisterns and a mosque, but the real prize is the view straight down into the green river gorge. Bring a torch, closed shoes and a litre of water, and skip it with small children or in the midday heat of July and August. In spring and autumn it is one of the finest short hikes on this coast. There is no public transport. Come by hire car or taxi along the D-400 and take the signposted Okurcalar turn-off, about 45 minutes from central Alanya. Many excursion companies bundle the han with jeep safaris or spring rafting on the Alara river, a comfortable option if you would rather not drive.
A rock-cut stairway turned into dark tunnels you climb by torchlight, at once the heart of the experience and the reason for caution.
A fully restored 1231 caravanserai, among the best-preserved Seljuk hans, suitable for all ages for a token fee.
From the summit the eye drops straight to the green Alara river between the valley walls, the true reward of the climb.
Çakallar village, Okurcalar, Alanya
With small children, older relatives or in midday summer heat, stop at the han; it is the comfortable, restored part. The climb is for fit walkers ready for dark tunnels and a scramble with no railings; do it in spring or autumn and it becomes the best part of the day.
No, han and castle together take two to three hours. Pair it with a rafting or jeep trip in the Alara valley, or lunch at one of the riverside restaurants, and the day is complete.
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