City History

While archaeological evidence from the nearby Kadiini Cave suggests human presence as far back as the Upper Paleolithic period (20,000–17,000 BC), Alanya formally enters the historical record in the 4th century BC under the name Coracesium (derived from the Luwian word Korakassa, meaning "protruding city").

During this Hellenistic period, the Persian Empire held loose sway over the region until Alexander the Great’s conquests redistributed Anatolia among his generals. By the 2nd century BC, the rugged, fortified cliffs became a magnet for Mediterranean pirates.

A rebel named Diodotus Tryphon turned Coracesium into a heavily fortified base for sea raiders.

The pirates used the deep local caves to hoard plundered wealth and stable their fleets, posing a severe threat to maritime trade.

The Cleopatra Legend: Local lore claims that the Roman general Mark Antony later gifted Coracesium and the surrounding timber-rich forests of Cilicia to the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra as a wedding present—primarily so she could harvest the dense cedar trees to build her naval fleet.

Today, the city’s most famous stretch of sand bears her name: Cleopatra Beach.

The pirate dominance finally ended in 67 BC.

Frustrated by disrupted grain supplies, the Roman Senate dispatched Pompey the Great, who crushed the pirate fleet right off the coast in the Battle of Korakesion, integrating the city into the Roman Empire.

Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the city transitioned smoothly into the Byzantine Empire.

The Byzantines renamed the settlement Kalonoros, which translates from Greek to "Beautiful Mountain."

Because the southern coast faced relentless Arab naval raids starting in the 7th century AD, the Byzantines prioritized reinforcing the clifftop walls, shifting the entire civilian population to live exclusively within the fortress defenses.

Недвижимость в Турции

Alanya's most significant historical pivot occurred in 1221. The Anatolian Seljuk Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I captured the fortress from its local Christian ruler, Kir Fard.

Recognizing its incredible strategic value, Keykubad made the city the empire’s secondary capital and official winter residence. He renamed it Alaiye (a derivative of his own name).

This period was Alanya's architectural and political golden age.

The Sultan launched a massive building campaign that completely redesigned the city's skyline, constructing:

Alanya Castle (Kale):

A massive defensive network featuring 6.5 kilometers of stone walls, 140 towers, and roughly 400 specialized brick cisterns.

The Red Tower (Kızıl Kule):

An iconic octagonal military structure built from red brick to guard the harbor.

The Tersane: A unique, five-arched stone shipyard open to the sea, establishing the Seljuks as a legitimate maritime power connecting trade between Anatolia, Venice, and Mamluk Egypt.

The Red Tower (Kızıl Kule), completed in 1226, remains the ultimate symbol of Seljuk military architecture in Alanya.. Quelle: Wikipedia

Following the decline of the Seljuks and a brief period under the Karamanid dynasty, the city was officially incorporated into the expanding Ottoman Empire in 1471 by Fatih Sultan Mehmet (Mehmet the Conqueror).

Under Ottoman rule, Alaiye lost its status as a royal winter capital but retained its importance as a regional trade port.

It specialized in exporting prized cedar timber for imperial shipbuilding and developing a thriving local silk trade. Administratively, it shifted over the centuries, eventually being attached to the province of Antalya in 1868.

In 1935, the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, visited the city.

Following a minor telegram misspelling, he modernized and finalized the town's name to Alanya.

For the first few decades of the republic, Alanya relied heavily on an agrarian economy, cultivating vast plantations of citrus fruits and bananas along the coastal plains. However, the city’s trajectory altered entirely in 1948 with the accidental discovery of Damlataş Cave during harbor construction.

The cave's unique microclimate proved highly therapeutic for individuals suffering from respiratory issues, sparking the city's very first wave of health tourism.

By the 1980s, Turkey’s sweeping tourism initiatives triggered an unprecedented urban boom.

The historic city burst past its ancient walls, transforming the quiet agrarian coast into a vibrant, multicultural hub that today welcomes millions of international travelers annually.

Quick Reference: Name Transformations

The city's changing names offer a clear window into who controlled its rocky peninsula over the last two millennia:

Historical Era City Name Language/Origin Significance

Hellenistic / Roman Coracesium (Korakesion) Luwian / Greek "Point-protruding city"; legendary pirate stronghold.

Byzantine Kalonoros Greek "Beautiful Mountain"; reinforced against naval raids.

Seljuk / Ottoman Alaiye Arabic / Turkish Named in honor of Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I.

Modern Republic Alanya Turkish Finalized by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1935.