Turkey info
Just like the way the sun shines brightly in alanya, its history is also
well known and felt everywhere. This beautiful city was built with the stones
accumulated over thousands of years. The most remarkable characteristic
of 'Kalekent', which is in the midst of the waters surrounding the peninsula
towards the Mediterranean, is that it has remained lively with people.
A similar weight stone dating back to the antiqity and hanging on the loom
of the old woman weaving a piece of cloth in the garden of her house in
the citadel has been exhibited in the museum. There are four museum in Alanya.
Alanya is surrounded by some cities of antiqity that will take a long time
to be visited. Alanya is an important center of the Mediterranean when its
history is considered.
Alanya is a city situated in the Mediterranean, in
the eastern coast of Alanya Bay of the Anatolian Peninsula and its history
dates back to the antiqity. However, the research done in Kadı ini Cave,
near the city centre, in 1957 showed that the first settlement in Alanya
dated back to late Paleolitic Age 20 thousand years ago.
It
is not yet known by whom or when Alanya was built. As a city, it first
appeared in history during the antiqity. In the antique era Alanya was
situated between the boundaries of Pamfilya and Kilikya, and was sometimes
considered to be a city of Kilikya and sometimes a city of Pamfilya. Heredot
states the people that lived in the region between Pamfilya and Kilikya
one descendants of people who spread to Anatolia after the Trojon war.
The first historical name of Alanya is Coracesium. The person who mentioned
the name of 'Coracesium' for the first time in history was 4th B.C. geographer
Skylaks. At that time this region was under the invasion of the Persians.
After some time the city become an important center for the Mediterranean
pirates and got strong enough to resist the Roman navy and became a base
of the frightening pirate of the Mediterranean: Dryphon. Although VII.
Antiochus, the Selefki king of the Syrian region, conquered the city in
139 B.C., Coracesium continued to be a home for the pirates for some more
time. In 65 B.C., the city became a part of Rome after a naval attack
by the Roman Commander, Magnus Pompelus. Following the collapse of Rome,
the city went through the Byzantium era and had a new name; Kalonoros
which means beautiful mountain, that was given by the sailors. In the
7th century the city resisted the Arabian invasion by strengthening its
walls. When the crusaders conquered Istanbul and established the Latin
Empire instead of the Byzantium in 1204, one of the feudal lords, Kyr
Vart, who benefited from the lack of authority in Anatolia, took the control
of Kalonoros.
In
1221, The Selcuk Sultan Alaaddin Keykubat, seized the control of the city
that he had besieged for some time, without fighting against Kyr Vart,
who surrendered. Alaaddin Keykubat got married to Kyr Vart's daughter
and had the city reconstructured and made it a winter capital city for
the Selcuks. He gave the city, the name of Alanya after his own name.
With its magnificient monuments and historical structure, Alanya, founded
by Alaaddin Keykubat has been given the status of World Culture and Heritage
nominee city by the United Nations science, culture and art institution;
Unesco. Alanya, which had its most brilliant era during the reign of Sultan
Alaaddin Keykubat , began to be controlled by Karamanoğulları principality
whose center was Konya, after the collapse of the Selcuk State in 1300.
|