Kara Kalesi, the 'land castle', faces its twin on the island offshore and guards the shore at Kızkalesi, ancient Korikos, in Erdemli district; the name keeps it from being confused with the sea castle. It stands beside the D.400 highway that links Mersin with the west, 22 km from Erdemli and 59 km from Mersin.
Although first built in antiquity, the castle was rebuilt in 1099 by the Byzantine emperor Aleksios I, after the first of the crusades, and remodelled again later. Its building material is mostly stone reused from the Byzantine period. In 1191 the king Filip Ougust visited on his way back from the third crusade, and in Ottoman history it is remembered as the last refuge of Cem Sultan, who had fought Bayezid II and waited here for the fleet that would take him out of the country.
Two rings of walls surround the castle, the outer built later than the inner, and within them are three churches, a cemetery and cisterns. In war or during pirate raids, a chain was stretched between this castle and the sea castle to stop enemy ships entering the harbour.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Mersin as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 10.4 °C in January to 28.5 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in April, May, October and November; rainfall is heaviest in December (137 mm) and lightest in August (7 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
