Most of what there is to see in Mersin lines the coast west of the city. The best-known sight is Kızkalesi, a castle on a small island facing the ruins of Korykos, and a short way along the shore are the two collapsed caverns called Cennet and Cehennem, Heaven and Hell. Inland from Silifke stand the Hellenistic and Roman temples of Uzuncaburç, while Tarsus, east of the city, keeps the church and well linked with St Paul. In the city itself the Archaeological Museum gives the background, and far to the west Anamur has a huge seaside fortress and a Roman harbour town. Each place below has its own page here.
Kızkalesi, Korykos and the Erdemli coast
Kız Kalesi, the maiden's castle, fills most of an island of roughly 15,000 square metres, and the resort on the shore opposite is named after it. Strabo mentions pirates using the island, but the walls are medieval: probably Byzantine in origin, under Alexios I after the First Crusade, then largely rebuilt by the Armenian kings of Cilicia. Two inscriptions are reported to name Levon I in 1206 and Hethum I in 1251. Look at the towers to tell the builders apart: square ones on the south side are Byzantine, round ones to the north and west are Armenian. Eight towers, each with its own shape, guard a circuit of 192 metres, and inside there is a small vaulted chapel. Local legend says a king of Korykos was warned by a seer that his daughter would die of a snakebite.
The island castle was one half of a pair. On the mainland stands the land castle of Korykos, put up in 1099 for Alexios I by the same architect who built Silifke's castle, and the ancient city spreads around it: harbour gate, necropolis, temples, a run of churches, a colonnaded street and baths. Under Rome, Korykos lived for five centuries on olive oil and wine. Further east, at Ayaş, Elaiussa Sebaste has a five-aisled basilica, the bowl of a theatre, cisterns for oil and water, and a temple of Jupiter with animal mosaics. A road through its cemetery passes a sarcophagus whose inscription threatens a fine on anyone buried in it besides the owner's daughter. A short drive inland, Kanlıdivane is a ruined town built around a sinkhole fifty metres deep.
Cennet, Cehennem and Narlıkuyu
The two sinkholes formed when groundwater ate the limestone away from below until the roof gave in. Cennet, the Korykos cave of antiquity, is the one you can walk into: a rough stair of some 450 steps leads down, and at about the 300th sits the fifth-century Church of the Virgin, sheltered so well by the overhanging rock that it never needed a roof. In its apse you can still pick out worn frescoes of Christ and the apostles. A temple of Zeus stands at the far end, its reused stones carved with the names of 130 priests. Cehennem, 75 metres away, has walls that curve inward and is for looking into, not climbing. Myth places the monster Typhon here, held by Zeus before being buried under Etna; the Ministry credits that telling to the Silifke Museum Directorate.
About 600 metres north-west is Astım Mağarası, the asthma cave, reached by a spiral iron stair and named for the belief that its damp air helps people with asthma. Down on the shore at Narlıkuyu, a small museum covers the floor of a fourth-century Roman bath fed by a freshwater spring; its mosaic of the Three Graces is the piece to see.
Tarsus and St Paul
Tarsus is Paul's birthplace, and of the several churches European travellers saw here in his name, the St Paul Monument Museum is the only one left. Restored by the ministry between 1997 and 2001, it is worth entering for its painted ceiling: angels among clouds, an eye in a triangle and Christ flanked by the four evangelists with their symbols. In the yard of the house traditionally called his is St Paul's Well, with excavated walls going back to his period visible under glass; the church, the well and their surroundings were nominated together in 2020 for UNESCO's World Heritage list. Close by, the restored stone houses of the Kızılmurat quarter now hold hotels, cafés and restaurants, and the Kırkkaşık bedesten of 1579, named for the forty spoons carved on its wall, still works as a covered market. The Tarsus Museum shows finds from the Gözlükule mound.
Uzuncaburç and the road north of Silifke
Uzuncaburç, thirty kilometres north of Silifke, has the best preserved ancient remains in the province. It began as the Hellenistic sanctuary of the kingdom of Olba and became the self-governing city of Diocaesarea under Vespasian in AD 72. The temple of Zeus, the tall tower that gave the village its name and a pyramid-roofed tomb survive from the earlier phase; the colonnaded street, theatre, temple of Tyche, fountain and arches are Roman. On the way up, at Demircili, four two-storey Roman tombs of the second century line the roadside, one with lion-head waterspouts.
Silifke: castle, museum and St Thekla
Silifke Castle sits on a rocky height west of the town, ringed by a ditch; of its towers, ten still stand. Its origins are Hellenistic or early Roman, though centuries of repair make it look medieval. Silifke Museum holds more than twenty thousand objects, from Hittite seals to coins of Alexander the Great. Also in Silifke is Ayatekla, where tradition says St Thekla, a follower of Paul, hid in a cave and vanished; the cave became a church, and the Ministry ranks the site among the earliest and weightiest Christian centres of Anatolia. Further inland, near Mut, Alahan Monastery keeps fifth-century churches with carved angels, joined by a colonnaded gallery 115 metres long.
Mersin city and Anamur
In the city, the Mersin Archaeological Museum on the waterfront reopened in a new building in 2017. A time tunnel walks you from the Copper Age to the republic, and finds from Yumuktepe, Soli and Elaiussa Sebaste fill the upper floor. Far to the west, Mamure Castle at Anamur is a huge shoreline fortress with thirty-six towers, a moat fed by the sea and a mosque inside its walls. Nearby, Anemurium spreads over Cape Anamur, where Anatolia comes closest to Cyprus, with a theatre, an odeon, baths and a cemetery of around 350 tombs.
