Kaleiçi, Tracing a Port City Inside Its Walls

Kaleiçi is the oldest quarter of Antalya, and it shows how a port city can keep living in the same place for centuries. Walking through it, you meet the traces of an ancient harbour town and of the settlement pattern of the Seljuk and Ottoman periods. This article reads the quarter through its walls, gates, harbour and houses rather than as a museum visit or a ready-made itinerary. The aim is to let you know what to look at before you step into the lanes.

From Attaleia to Kaleiçi, a Short History of a Port City

According to the Antalya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, the city was founded by King Attalos II of Pergamon, and its name means "home of Attalos". After the Pergamon kingdom ended in 133 BC, the city stayed independent for a while and then fell into the hands of pirates. The Antalya Governorship page states that the city was annexed to Roman territory in 77 BC by the commander Servilius Isauricus and became a base for Pompey's fleet in 67 BC. The visit of Emperor Hadrian to Attaleia in AD 130 is named in the official sources as the event that helped the city grow. Under Byzantine rule Attaleia was a bishopric centre, and after it passed to the Turks it developed greatly.

The Governorship page adds an interesting detail. Before Attaleia was founded, a pirate harbour called Korykos stood where the yacht harbour is today. The name also means "rock hollow" and points both to the natural structure of the cliffs and to the harbour's role as a shelter. The port and the ancient city that grew behind it were continuously inhabited from the 2nd century BC and have survived to the present day. This continuity explains why Kaleiçi should be read as a living quarter rather than as an open-air museum.

Because the modern city was built over the ancient settlement, very few remains of antiquity can be seen in Antalya. It is no longer possible to locate buildings such as temples, the agora or the theatre. Among the visible remains are part of the harbour breakwater and the wall surrounding the harbour.

Horseshoe Shaped Walls and Their Many Layers

Kaleiçi is surrounded by inner and outer walls shaped like a horseshoe, although a large part of them has collapsed. The official sources say the walls are the joint work of the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman periods. According to the Governorship page the walls have 80 bastions. The same page explains that one of the two thick walls stands in the bay on the seashore and the other on the land side, and that the outer walls have a tower about every fifty paces.

It is recorded that the foundations of these walls were laid by the Romans, and that they were extended and repaired under the Seljuks. Many stone blocks carrying ancient inscriptions were used in building the walls, and these blocks stayed well preserved until the 19th century. So when you look at the walls you are reading not only a defensive structure but also the old writing carried by reused stones and a long history of repairs. As you walk along the wall, notice how the masonry shows different materials and workmanship in different places; the differences show that several eras stand side by side.

Hadrian's Gate and What Its Three Arches Tell

The best known opening in the walls today is the restored Hadrian's Gate. It is also known as Üç Kapılar, meaning the Three Gates, and the Antalya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism describes it as one of the most beautiful ancient works of the city. The gate takes its name from the emperor's visit in AD 130. The sources link the structure to that visit, but since they give no detail on the exact year of construction, we limit ourselves here to what the official pages say.

Look at the gate first from outside and then from inside. The three arched face is a good chance to see the proportion of the arches and the stone workmanship up close. As you pass through, think about how the stone floor and the spaces under the arches have worn down, and how many centuries people went about daily life through the same passage. Afternoon light gives the gate's face a warmer tone, so those hours suit photography.

The Fortress Gate and the Clock Tower

The Kaleiçi page of the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality presents the Kale Kapısı, or Fortress Gate, as the main gate of the quarter opening to the land. In the past, the roads coming to the city from the east, west and north ended at this gate. Ibn Bibi mentioned the gate in connection with the sieges of 1207 and 1216. It also appears under names such as Pazar Kapısı, Çarşı Kapısı and Asitane Kapısı, while Evliya Çelebi called it Varoş Kapısı. The gate was repaired many times and was demolished during the years of the First World War.

The Clock Tower sits on the bastion of the Fortress Gate. According to the municipality page, the tower was built in 1921 by the Antalya Municipality on the initiative of people from İzmir who had migrated to Antalya after the occupation of İzmir. The Governorship page, for its part, lists the Hıdırlık Tower, Hadrian's Gate and the Clock Tower among the wall remains. Walking along the line that joins these three structures is a practical way to see how the wall line runs through the city today. It is enough to view these towers as architecture and as part of the city skyline; for further detail you can turn to the publications of the official institutions.

Narrow Lanes and Tile Roofed Houses

Both the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism and the Governorship state that about 3 thousand tile roofed houses stand inside the walls. The official account stresses that the characteristic structure of these houses tells us not only about the architectural history of Antalya but also about the way of life, customs and traditions of the region. The narrow lanes inside the walls run uphill from the harbour along the wall. For this reason the easiest way to find your direction in the quarter is to go downhill to the sea and uphill to the land.

While strolling, look at the colour of the roof tiles, the height of the courtyard walls and the timber of the doors. These are the visible traces of the local building tradition. Many historic buildings have been converted into lodging, dining and entertainment uses, such as hotels, pensions, restaurants and bars. This conversion has kept the quarter lively, but it has also demanded a careful balance to protect the historic fabric. Staying quiet in the narrow lanes and not blocking the front of residential doors is a way of respecting the living side of the quarter.

The Yivli Minare stands out in the skyline of the quarter. According to the municipality page the minaret is thirty eight metres high, its balcony is reached by ninety steps, and it is decorated with blue tiles. The official sources also count structures such as the Karatay Madrasa, the Gıyaseddin Keyhüsrev Madrasa and the İskele Mosque among the important historic buildings inside the walls. In this article we mention them only within an architectural and skyline frame.

The Old Harbour and the Edge of the Cliffs

The sea lies to the west of Kaleiçi. The ancient harbour is used today as a modern yacht harbour, and part of the harbour breakwater is still counted among the ancient remains. The Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism writes that the yacht harbour and the ancient city together form a view that has inspired many painters, writers and poets. If you follow one of the lanes down to the harbour edge, you will better understand why the name Korykos, meaning rock hollow, was given, because the shore looks like a shelter tucked between steep rocks.

The harbour area is the clearest place that recalls the city's link with the sea. The seaward part of the walls and the harbour should be considered together. Looking at the quarter from the shore close to sunset lets you see the silhouette of the tile roofs and the wall bastions at once.

The Protected Site, Restoration and the 1984 Golden Apple Award

The Governorship page states that in 1972 the inner harbour of Antalya and the Kaleiçi quarter were placed under protection as a protected site by the High Council of Immovable Antiquities and Monuments because of their original fabric. The same page records that on 28 April 1984 FIJET gave the Golden Apple award to the Ministry of Tourism for the restoration work of the Antalya Kaleiçi Complex. The Provincial Directorate page also links the award to a restoration project of 1984. Official pages also call the award, by way of comparison, the Oscar of tourism, but this is only a comparison, and the most accurate description is that it is the Golden Apple award given by an international association of tourism writers.

The protection decision and the restoration are the real story behind the present structure of Kaleiçi. A large part of the historic houses and the street fabric you see is the result of this deliberate protection process. In protected sites, building and use conditions are defined; for details you can look at the Conditions for the Protection and Use of Protected Sites section of the Antalya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism.

How to Walk Kaleiçi

The quarter suits a walk on foot. Vehicle use is limited in the narrow lanes, so for those who arrive by car, walking in from the city centre is the most comfortable option. Morning hours are when the lanes are calm and the light is soft for photography. In the evening the sunset light touches the roofs and the wall bastions. In the summer heat prefer the shaded lanes and the shore section by the sea; comfortable shoes matter because the lanes are paved with stone and slope toward the harbour.

The Kaleiçi page of the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality presents the important points inside the quarter as a numbered list. This list includes stops such as the Atatürk monument, the Attalos statue, the madrasas, the Fortress Gate and the Clock Tower. The Kaleiçi Culture and Tourism Map prepared by the municipality's Directorate of City History and Promotion can be used to put your walk in order. It is useful to check the map and page information before your visit.

Some practical notes follow. Opening hours, fees and event programmes change; check current information on the official websites of the Antalya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism and the municipality. Homes and businesses are mixed together in the quarter, so mind the privacy of residents when taking photographs. Do not climb the historic walls and stones, and take care not to touch inscriptions on the stone blocks. The easiest way to arrive is to come to the city centre by public transport and enter Kaleiçi on foot; for current line information you can look at the pages of the city transport authority.

Sources

• T.C. Antalya Valiliği, Kaleiçi, https://www.antalya.gov.tr/kaleici
• Antalya İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü, Kaleiçi, https://antalya.ktb.gov.tr/TR-67575/kaleici.html
• Antalya Büyükşehir Belediyesi, Kaleiçi, https://www.antalya.bel.tr/tr/kaleici
• Vikipedi, Kaleiçi, https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleiçi,_Muratpaşa