Keçi Kalesi stands above Kale village outside Gümüşhane, on a rocky hill whose northeast side is the easiest way up — and so the side the builders had to reckon with. The walls are of rubble stone dressed on the outward faces, in mixed sizes, bedded in thick limestone mortar joints. They survive largely intact, with towers at the southwest and northeast shaped to fit whatever the ground allowed.
On the northwest is an irregular rectangular tower, and west of it rooms below ground level that were probably quarters. To the south are the partial remains of a vaulted structure, most likely a cistern. The main circuit encloses the top of the hill, and on its southern flank sections of an outer wall can still be traced in places.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Gümüşhane as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -1.7 °C in January to 20.3 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in May (70 mm) and lightest in August (14 mm). Long-term means for 1961-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
