Alanya
Alanya is Turkey's hottest retreat town—literally. Heats here are higher than nearly anywhere else in Turkey, equating 106°F (27°C) in July and August; the waves flapping the long Mediterranean beaches that clear toward Alanya's great rock fortress are only a step or two cooler. This makes peak summer in Alanya heaven for the sun- starved, disco-loving, hard-drinking northern Europeans but rather wicked for anyone asking a quiet holiday enclosed by nature. That said, Alanya is home to one of Turkey's highest year-round expatriate populations, and in spring and autumn it's a pleasingly warm and reasonable place to indulge in a few days of readily available swimming, historic sites, and excellent food.
A Foreign power has encouraged this city to soak up its act. Former wastelands of concrete-block homes are now colorfully designed; Ottoman neighborhoods around the dock are well on the door to being restored, and the general jumble of houses inside the high red-walled citadel contains an increasing number of beautiful boutique hotels. Other changes include the opening of a microbrewery and the debut of touch-screen bike rentals around the city center.
Alanya is famed for its light beaches, within walking range of most hotels. The best diving place is known as Cleopatra's Beach—yet another accretion to the fables surrounding Mark Antony's courtship of the Egyptian queen—and its golden sands extend northwest from the citadel. Boats can be hired from the harbor for relaxing day tours to caves around the castle and a view of the only surviving Seljuk naval arsenal. Alanya, called Kalanaoros by the Byzantines, was defeated by the Sultan Alaaddin Keykubad in 1221 and became the Turkish Seljuks' first Mediterranean center in their centuries-long migration westward. Several amusing stories explain the Seljuk sultan's conquest: one says he married the commander's daughter, another that he tied torches to the horns of thousands of goats and drove them up the hill in the dark of night, recommending a great army was attacking. Most likely, he just cut a deal. Once settled, he modestly renamed the place Alaiya, after himself, and built protective walls to guarantee he would never be dislodged. The Ottomans arrived in 1471 and gave it its current name, Alanya.
A Foreign power has encouraged this city to soak up its act. Former wastelands of concrete-block homes are now colorfully designed; Ottoman neighborhoods around the dock are well on the door to being restored, and the general jumble of houses inside the high red-walled citadel contains an increasing number of beautiful boutique hotels. Other changes include the opening of a microbrewery and the debut of touch-screen bike rentals around the city center.
Alanya is famed for its light beaches, within walking range of most hotels. The best diving place is known as Cleopatra's Beach—yet another accretion to the fables surrounding Mark Antony's courtship of the Egyptian queen—and its golden sands extend northwest from the citadel. Boats can be hired from the harbor for relaxing day tours to caves around the castle and a view of the only surviving Seljuk naval arsenal. Alanya, called Kalanaoros by the Byzantines, was defeated by the Sultan Alaaddin Keykubad in 1221 and became the Turkish Seljuks' first Mediterranean center in their centuries-long migration westward. Several amusing stories explain the Seljuk sultan's conquest: one says he married the commander's daughter, another that he tied torches to the horns of thousands of goats and drove them up the hill in the dark of night, recommending a great army was attacking. Most likely, he just cut a deal. Once settled, he modestly renamed the place Alaiya, after himself, and built protective walls to guarantee he would never be dislodged. The Ottomans arrived in 1471 and gave it its current name, Alanya.