Five arches on the water
The only Seljuk shipyard left standing anywhere, a 56.5-metre front the sea still flows into.
David Bolton from UK — CC BY 2.0 · Julian Lupyan — CC0 · Dosseman — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dosseman — CC BY-SA 4.0
Five stone arches open straight onto the sea, and the water still slides into them the way it did eight centuries ago. This is the dockyard Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I ordered in 1228, six years after taking the city: the Seljuks' first shipyard on the Mediterranean and the only one anywhere that still stands. He had already built one at Sinop on the Black Sea, so when this one was finished he took the title 'Sultan of the Two Seas', and his emblem is still carved over the entrance. The numbers explain the place better than any panel: a seafront 56.5 metres wide, bays 44 metres deep, and a spot under the castle walls chosen so the sun reaches inside for as long as possible and the shipwrights could work by daylight. One bay holds a well that silted up long ago; a small mescit sits on one side and a guardroom on the other. Right next door is the Tophane, a three-storey gun house on a rock ten metres above the water where cannon were cast for the fleet. Know this before you come: the interior is bare stone, and the handful of maritime displays is modest. The building is the exhibit. You reach it on foot from the Red Tower along the seaward wall walk, short but all steps and uneven stone, so no pushchairs and not for anyone who struggles with a climb, or by boat from the harbour if your harbour boat tour passes it from the water. Twenty minutes is enough, but they are among the best twenty minutes in Alanya if you come towards sunset, when the light leans into the arches. In August you will have climbed the tower and the wall walk in fierce heat, so save the shipyard for the end of the day. One ticket covers Alanya Castle in all its parts, the inner castle, the Red Tower and the shipyard, on the same day, at 12 euro for foreign visitors (the official 2026 rate). Keep it after the tower and do not buy twice.
The only Seljuk shipyard left standing anywhere, a 56.5-metre front the sea still flows into.
The emblem of Alaeddin Keykubad, 'Sultan of the Two Seas', carved over the entrance of his second dockyard after Sinop.
A three-storey gun house on a ten-metre rock where cannon were cast for the fleet.
Tophane Mahallesi, on the harbour front below the Red Tower, Alanya
Red Tower (Kızıl Kule)An architect from Aleppo built it, and that one fact changes how you look at the3 min walk4.9
Alanya CastleSix and a half kilometres of wall and something like 140 towers wrap an entire r6 min walk4.8
Damlataş CaveUntil ten in the morning, nobody enters Damlataş Cave for fun. The first four ho16 min walk4.1
Alanya Archaeological MuseumThe star of this museum is a bronze figure barely 52 centimetres tall, yet it ha18 min walk4.5From the tower's terrace you see all of it from above, and that is enough if you are short on time or pushing a pram, because the wall walk is steps and rough stone. But standing between the arches at water level is a different experience altogether, and it costs nothing extra since it is on the same ticket. If you have twenty minutes, go down.
Not much: a few maritime pieces and small models, the rest is stone and sea. Children enjoy the arches and the water more than the displays, and the visit is short enough that they will not get bored, but hold their hands at the water's edge as there are no railings.
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