FROM MAIDENS'S CASTLE TO THREE SISTERS
Turkey's Mediterranean region welcomes tens of thousands
of holidaymakers every year, mostly in Antalya and its environs.
But other parts of the same coast that are less well known also
offer fascinating historical sights and beautiful scenery. The area
around Mersin east of Antalya is one such destination. The cooler
autumn months are particularly suitable for sightseeing in this
region, and we have chosen Maiden's Castle and its environs to tell
you about this month. On our way to the castle we stopped off to
visit Kanlidivane, 25 kilometres north of the town of Silifke.
Kanlidivane is a fearsome swallow hole, around which stand Roman
and Byzantine buildings. The most striking of the sights here is
undoubtedly the stone figures who have sat unmoving for centuries
on the south wall of the pit. They perhaps represent an emperor
with his empress and family. According to legend prisoners were
thrown into the pit to be eaten by lions, watched by the local nobility,
hence the name Kanlidivane or Place of Bloodshed.
Continuing southwards to the coast you come to a
castle standing in the middle of the sea. Kiz Kalesi, or Maiden's
Castle, lies 200 metres offshore on a tiny islet. The view of a
castle surrounded by water is so striking, that one tends not to
notice the second castle facing it on dry land. Both castles used
to keep watch over Corycus, one of the most important ports of the
Eastern Mediterranean in the middle ages. Both castles were built
in the early 12th century during the Byzantine period by Armenian
kings of the Rubenian dynasty, and once upon a time were linked
by a wall which stretched out to sea. Maiden's Castle was constructed
on the tiny island of Crambusa, which was a pirate stronghold.
According to the legend which lent the castle its
popular name, a king living in Mersin to the east of here prayed
night and day that God might grant him a daughter. Finally his wish
came true, and a beautiful daughter was born to him. As she grew
older, she won everyonful love, not only for her beauty but for
her kindness.
One day a fortune teller came to the city, and the
king invited her to the palace to learn what the future held in
store. When the fortune teller looked at the princss'sf hand, she
fell silent. The king insisted on hearing what she had seen, and
she told him that his daughter would be bitten by a snake and die.
Her father was determined to do everything in his power to avert
this fate, and so he built a castle of white stone on a tiny island
60 kilometres away, and sent his daughter to live there. One day,
however, a snake concealed in a basket of grapes sent from the palace
bit the princess and she died. Henceforth the castle became known
as Maiden's Castle.
The walls of the castle are 900 metres long. Recently concerts have
been helt here. Now, Maiden's Castle stands uninhabited, the pirates
but a memory and the city it guarded so faithfully in ruins.A few
kilometres west of the castle is Adamkayalar, where Roman reliefs
can be seen carved on the steep rock wall of the Seytan river valley.
These date from the 1st-2nd centuries BC, and mark the site of ancient
graves.
Further along the same road are two more renowned
swallow holes, known as Cennet (Heaven) and Cehennem (Hell). Both
these huge pits were created by the collapse of the roofs of caverns
gouged out of the limestone by underground rivers. Cennet is the
largest, measuring 200 metres wide and 70 metres deep. A flight
of 452 steps dating from the Roman period leads down to the bottom.
At the 300th step is the Church of St Mary, built in the 5th or
6th century at the mouth of a cave. This is the mouth of an enormous
cave system, and as you penetrate deeper inside, if you put your
ear to the rock wall you can hear the sound of the rushing underground
river. It was this river which ancient people called the Styx, and
believed to flow through the underworld of the dead.A short way
from Cennet is Cehennem, a pit which is far more intimidating in
appearance. Although only 50 metres wide, Cehennem is 120 metres
deep and has sheer sides impossible to descend. When you see it,
you are in no doubt that Hell is an appropriate name for this gaping
hole in the earth.
Mythology relates that when Zeus defeated the hundred
headed monster Typhon, he imprisoned it here.
Beyond Cennet is another cave known as the Wishing
Cave or sometimes as the Asthma Cave in reference to its therapeutic
qualities. An iron staircase enables visitors to descend easily
into the cave, which is filled with stalagmites and stalactites.
This is believed to be the original home of Typhon. The constant
temperature and humidity level in the cave are the reason for the
widespread belief that it relieves asthma.By now you must be tired
and thirsty, and what better place to take a rest than Narlikuyu,
a small cove a little to the west of the Maiden's Castle? Narlikuyu
is famous for its fish restaurants. Right behind the tables with
their snow white tablecloths, you will notice a tiny white building.
This must be Turkey's smallest museum. Yet it contains one of the
world's wonders: a mosaic depicting three beautiful women dating
from the 4th century BC.
When Poimeinos, Roman commander of the Princes Islands
in Istanbul, built baths here, he had its floor laid with a mosaic
depicting the semi-divine sisters Aglaia, Thalia and Euphrosyne.
This picture of three beauties who loved enjoying themselves and
giving pleasure to others arouses the same wonder in us today as
it must have done those who first saw it two and a half thousand
years ago.
* Evin Dogu is a journalist
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