The crossing
Ten minutes over the water to an island ringed by a full circuit of walls, and the best photograph you will take in the whole of Mersin.
Zeynel Cebeci — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Zeynel Cebeci — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Vincent Vega — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Vincent Vega — CC BY-SA 4.0
The first thing you see from Kızkalesi beach is a whole castle sitting on the water: a small island roughly 300 metres out, ringed by rough-cut stone walls and eight towers, as though someone had dropped a fortress into the sea and left it there. The island was Crambusa in antiquity; the Byzantines fortified it after the First Crusade, the Armenian kings of Cilicia rebuilt it in the 13th century with the round towers still standing today, and the Ottomans took it in 1471. The legend is the same one told at the Maiden's Tower in Istanbul, a king hiding his daughter on an island to cheat a prophecy that a snake would kill her, and the snake arriving in a basket of fruit. The story is recycled; the setting here is far better than the one in Istanbul. Getting across is half the point. You stand on the sand and choose: a small boat that does the crossing in ten minutes for a cash fare paid to the boatman (ask on the beach; it changes every season), or a pedal boat you work yourself if the sea is flat. The castle ticket is a Ministry of Culture one, 3 euros for foreigners, Müzekart accepted, open daily from 08:30 to 19:00 with the ticket window closing at 18:30; hours usually shorten in winter to around 17:30, so check before you go. Inside the walls, keep expectations modest: an open courtyard, the stump of a small chapel and a wall-walk reached by uneven stone steps. The value is entirely in the view back to the long beach, the land castle opposite and the Taurus mountains behind it. That land castle, Korykos, is the other half of the visit and should not be skipped. Bigger than the island castle and far less photographed, it stands at the western end of the beach with Roman tombs and the remains of Byzantine churches scattered nearby. The ministry lists it under the same ticket, though on the ground it is loosely supervised. An hour there on its own is well spent. Kızkalesi is a busy, unpretentious Turkish beach resort about 60 km west of Mersin on the D400, an hour by car or around an hour and a quarter on the Silifke-bound dolmuş. For families: the beach is sandy and shallow and excellent for small children, but the castle itself is not pushchair territory because of the boat and the steps, and swimming out to the island (about 300 metres) is popular with young Turks but a poor idea in any swell. In August the place is packed with Turkish families and parking is a struggle; in winter it empties out and the boats dwindle to almost nothing. Spring or September and October, warm sea and an empty beach, is the time to come.
Ten minutes over the water to an island ringed by a full circuit of walls, and the best photograph you will take in the whole of Mersin.
Stone steps climb to the ramparts, where the beach, the land castle and the Taurus mountains line up in one view.
The land castle at the end of the beach, larger than the island one, with Roman tombs around it that almost nobody visits.
Kızkalesi beach, Erdemli, Mersin
Yes, if you pair it with Korykos castle and the Heaven and Hell caves at Narlıkuyu fifteen minutes away; the island castle alone is a pleasant hour and no more, and it suits nobody who struggles with steps or a small boat.
It is about 300 metres and young Turks do it daily in summer, but it is not advisable with children or in any swell, and you still pay the castle ticket when you land.