The clifftop terraces
From some forty metres up you take in the whole gulf, Konyaaltı beach and the Beydağları, snow-capped until spring.
Bestalex — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dat doris — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dosseman — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dosseman — CC BY-SA 4.0
Nobody comes here for the park. They come for its edge: a run of terraces perched thirty to forty metres above the water, looking out over the whole Gulf of Antalya to Konyaaltı beach and the Beydağları range behind it, snow-capped from winter into spring while you drink tea under the palms. It is the widest free view in the city, and the least effort to reach. The park opened in 1943 after about three years of work under governor Haşim İşcan, was known at first as İnönü Park after president İsmet İnönü, and eventually settled on the name of the Karaalioğlu family who had owned the land. At roughly fourteen hectares it is Antalya's oldest park and the largest in the city centre, laid out with the straight axes and geometric flowerbeds of early-Republican taste, planted with araucaria, cypress and olive, and scattered with fountains and sculptures, the poet Nâzım Hikmet and Don Quixote among them. At dusk, flocks of feral green parakeets shriek through the trees. At the north-western corner, where the park meets Kaleiçi, stands Hıdırlık Tower, a squat 14-metre Roman stone tower from the second century AD. After years fenced off for excavation, its surroundings reopened in July 2026 with a new clifftop viewing terrace and glass-floored walkways over a monumental tomb, mosaics, a colonnaded Roman street and early Byzantine chapel remains uncovered during the dig. It is worth fifteen minutes of your time. For families: the ground is mostly flat and pushchair-friendly, there are playgrounds, public toilets and municipal-priced tea gardens, and it is a ten-minute walk from the old harbour or a short tram ride from the centre. In August, do not turn up before six in the evening; there is shade, but the humidity is merciless. Arrive half an hour before sunset, take a table on the rim, and leave once the lights of Konyaaltı come on. As a stand-alone midday sight, though, it is skippable.
From some forty metres up you take in the whole gulf, Konyaaltı beach and the Beydağları, snow-capped until spring.
A second-century Roman tower whose precinct reopened in July 2026 with glass walkways over a newly excavated tomb, mosaics and a colonnaded Roman street.
The tea gardens along the rim fill up at dusk; claim a table early and stay until the city lights come on.
Kılınçarslan Mah., Park Sokak, Muratpaşa, Antalya
Kaleiçi Old TownThe harbour where you drink your coffee in Kaleiçi is the same one Roman, Seljuk1 min walk
Hıdırlık TowerClose to two thousand years on the edge of a cliff, and nobody can say for certa1 min walk
Kaleiçi Museum (Suna & İnan Kıraç)A small Greek church that spent decades as a derelict storehouse, and a nineteen6 min walk
Antalya Toy MuseumOn the quay of Antalya's old harbour, where the boat touts are loudest, a restor7 min walk
Yivli Minare MosqueThe 38-metre fluted brick minaret rising over the entrance to Kaleiçi is Antalya8 min walkYes, but as the finale to a Kaleiçi walk, not as a separate stop. End your old-town wander with the ten-minute walk to the cliff edge before sunset, sit for an hour, then head back for dinner. If you are thinking of coming at midday just to see the park, save your time: view aside, it is an ordinary municipal park.
No. The park sits on top of the cliff and there is no safe way down to the water from it. The nearest swimming is Konyaaltı beach to the west, a free public beach reached by cliff lifts or steps, or the small Mermerli beach at the foot of Kaleiçi, which charges an entry fee and is reached by a long flight of steps.
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