Ayasuluk Citadel

The citadel of Selçuk is located on the Ayasoluk hill in the town of Selçuk in the province of İzmir on the Turkish Aegean coast.

History

On the Ayasoluk hill there was probably the first settlement that can be assigned to Ephesus. It lay on the slope of the hill fort. Whether it was identical with the Apasa mentioned in Hittite sources, the temporary capital of Arzawa, is disputed. After in the seventh century AD the harbor of Ephesus repeatedly silted up and the city was threatened by Arab raids, the Byzantines moved the settlement again to the area around the hill, where in the sixth century the Church of St. John had been built. The construction date of the fortress cannot be reconstructed exactly, but from the type of masonry it can be inferred that it was created in Byzantine times, also in the sixth century. The structure was later taken over by the Seljuks, who converted the castle into a Byzantine‑Seljuk hybrid complex.

Structure

The citadel is surrounded by a ring wall closed at the top with a crenellated parapet. The walkable wall around the ring is reinforced by 15 towers and has a gate on the west and a gate on the east. Inside are several cisterns, a chapel and a mosque from the Seljuk period. The greatest diameter of the complex measures about 160 m in the north‑south direction.