Lamos Castle

Lamos Castle is a high to late medieval castle ruin in the historic region of Cilicia in the district of Erdemli of the Turkish province of Mersin.

Location

Lamos Castle is located in the town of Limonlu (formerly Lamos, also Lamas or Lamaws, ancient Greek Λάμος, Hittite: Lamiya) on the eponymous river Limonlu Çayı (anciently also Lamos), which in antiquity formed the border between the Plains (Cilicia Pedias) and Rough Cilicia (Cilicia Tracheia), on a low hill of limestone that rises on the right, western bank of the Limonlu River north of the town. About 500 metres east the river flows into the Mediterranean Sea. In the northwest of the town an aqueduct begins, which carried water from the Lamos River to Elaiussa Sebaste and Korykos in the southwest. The surroundings of the town were called Lamousia.

The town is not to be confused with the eponymous Lamos further west on the border between Cilicia and Isauria, whose surrounding area is called Lamotis.

History

Strabo mentions the place Lamos at the mouth of the eponymous river. In the 9th and 10th centuries Muslims and Byzantines met at the site several times for the purpose of prisoner exchange. The first of these meetings took place, according to Hellenkemper/Hild, in 797, according to other sources in 805 during the reign of the caliph Harun al‑Rashid and the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros I. In 1158 the Byzantine emperor Manuel I captured the fortress. In 1164/65 the Armenian Vasak is recorded as prince of Asguras and Lamaws. Later the fortress passed into Ottoman possession.

Description

The curtain wall of the castle encloses a west‑east‑oriented rectangle with an area of about 40 × 80 metres. Two building phases are recognizable. The Armenian construction had semicircular projecting bastions, one of which is still visible at the southeastern corner. In Ottoman times they were overbuilt with rectangular bastions, and the western part was completely rebuilt. Today only low remains of the enclosing wall survive, with traces of one rectangular, inward‑facing bastion each in the north, south and west. From the ancient site of Lamos only isolated spolia can still be found in the surroundings.