Liman Castle

Liman Castle (Turkish for harbor castle, also Ak Liman or Ağa Limanı) is the ruin of a probably Ottoman fortification in Cilicia in southern Turkey.

Location

The castle is located in the district of Silifke of the Turkish province of Mersin, about six kilometres southwest of Taşucu, the ancient Holmoi, and 15 kilometres southwest of the district town Silifke, formerly Seleukia on the Kalykadnos. It stands on a peninsula in the bay of Taşucu. An inlet in this peninsula on the east side of the structure formed a small natural harbor. In the bay west of the peninsula lies the hamlet Boğsak with the offshore island Boğsak Adası, on which the ruins of the ancient Nesulion are located. Northeast of the castle, 3.5 kilometres away, are the remains of the early Byzantine site Mylai. West of the peninsula the highway D-400 runs past, following the Mediterranean coast. Between the road and the castle hill is the military area of a NATO harbor, so the castle is not accessible today.

History

In the 17th century Ağa Limanı was described as a pirate nest. Cosimo II, Duke of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, sent six warships in 1613 to free Christian hostages from the control of the pirates entrenched there. The description of the fortification provides a terminus ante quem for the construction of the complex. Based on the masonry technique and construction details the castle can be dated younger than the Karamanid fortress Mamure Kalesi, but older than the Külliye of Payas in eastern Cilicia. Thus, according to Friedrich Hild and Hansgerd Hellenkemper, who traveled in Cilicia in the 1970s and 80s, a construction date in the Ottoman period results.

The British captain Francis Beaufort, who explored the Cilician coast on behalf of the Admiralty in the years 1811–12, describes the bay with the castle as the harbor of Silifke, if Silifke needed a harbor. The German antiquarians Rudolf Heberdey and Adolf Wilhelm visited the site in 1896 and described the castle as an exceedingly boring fortress.

Castle complex

The castle complex has an octagonal, almost oval ground plan with a diameter from north to south of about 120 metres, from west to east 70 metres. It consists of a donjon in the north, on the summit of the hill, and two adjoining baileys. The rectangular donjon represents the oldest part of the fortification. It is two‑storeyed and was later raised by one storey, which is recognizable in the crenellated outer wall. The upper termination forms a platform surrounded by crenellations. The ground floor had an entrance, later walled up, from the northern bailey, the upper floors were accessible by external stairs.

To the tower, the two fortified courtyards attach in the south, which are separated by a wall running roughly west‑east. Of the up to 1.60 metre wide walls of the northern, larger courtyard, which adapt to the terrain dropping about ten metres, only a few parts remain in the north up to the height of the crenellations. Inside, stairs led to the defensive passages, and in the southwest corner remnants of a building with belt arches and a cistern can be seen. A gate was certainly present; it must have been located in the area of the openings, its exact position cannot be clarified. The walls of the southern courtyard are almost completely intact, they have a thickness of up to 3.10 metres. The masonry consists of various, mostly hand‑quarry‑shaped stones and rubble stone. Individual larger blocks are presumably spolia, whose origin is unclear. Access to the southern courtyard existed only from the northern part, in the east of the dividing wall. Their crenellations faced north, so that the southern courtyard could be defended independently. In the outer walls on the harbor side, cannon openings are cut out, the crenellations were walled up in a later building phase.