Alanya Old Town (Tophane)

What is Alanya Old Town?

When locals and guidebooks say “old town” in Alanya, they mostly mean Tophane — a quiet residential quarter on the eastern slope of the castle peninsula, overlooking the harbour. There is no gate or ticket desk: these are ordinary streets with washing lines, pomegranate trees in courtyards and cats on every step. Above the wall line sits the Hisariçi quarter with Ehmedek, and at the top, the citadel of Alanya Castle.

What you come for is the houses: whitewashed stone ground floors, timber upper storeys with bay windows, red-tiled roofs and high courtyard walls. They step down the hill in terraces so that no house blocks its neighbour’s sea view. Many have been restored, some now hold small guesthouses and cafés, a few stand empty.

This is not a souvenir-lined old town like Antalya’s Kaleiçi. Tophane has hardly any shops; the appeal is the lanes themselves and the views down to the harbour, the Red Tower and the shipyard.

Things to see in the old town

• Tophane’s Ottoman houses — stone below, timber above, bay windows and red tiles. The finest line Tophane Caddesi and the lanes just above it.
• Tophane bastion — the harbour fortification that gave the quarter its name, with the Red Tower right below.
• Harbour views — every bend opens onto the port, the boats and the eastern beach stretching to the Taurus Mountains.
• The Seljuk shipyard — five pointed arches at the waterline; from above you see how it is cut into the rock.
• Cisterns and flat roofs — every house has its own cistern, and in places the roof of a lower house is the yard and doorstep of the one above.
• Old mosques and churches — small neighbourhood mosques (mescit) and historic churches left by the quarter’s Christian residents.
• Terrace tea gardens and cafés — a handful of family places with a view; prices are higher than down in town, you pay for the panorama.
• Further up, in Hisariçi: the Akşebe mosque and tomb, the Süleymaniye Mosque and the Bedesten — part of a walk around the castle. Cover shoulders and knees to go into the mosques; women need a headscarf.

Is Alanya Old Town worth it?

Yes, if you are visiting the castle anyway: walking down through Tophane is the best way off the hill and takes about an hour with photo stops. Climbing up from the harbour just for the quarter on a hot afternoon is not worth it — you’ll be worn out before the good part.

It suits travellers who like old architecture, quiet streets and views. If you want a lively old town packed with shops and restaurants, Kaleiçi in Antalya is a better match. Kids can manage it fine on foot, but leave the pushchair behind and avoid midday.

A short history of the quarter

There was a town on this rock in antiquity — the Romans knew it as Coracesium. Its present shape is Seljuk: in 1221 Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I captured the fortress and made it his main Mediterranean naval base. The town became Alaiye, after the sultan — hence Alanya.

Keykubad built the five-bay shipyard and the octagonal Red Tower (1226) at the water’s edge and ran 6.5 km of walls up the slope. Tophane grew between them; the name means “cannon house”, and guns and powder to defend the shipyard were kept at the bastion above the harbour.

Life on the slope was never easy. There is no water, so every house has its own cistern, and the 17th-century traveller Evliya Çelebi wrote that people came up by mule. In 1810 the English traveller Martin Leake admired how the houses rise in terraces back to back, the flat roof of one serving as the street for the next. Today the quarter is protected and the houses are restored to their original form.

Once the Ottomans no longer needed the hill as a front line, houses and villas spread across the slope — most of those still standing date from the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 20th century the town moved down to the beaches, and Tophane stayed a quarter of old families. In 2009 the castle and shipyard joined UNESCO’s Tentative List.

Best photo spots

The classic shot is from the sea: on a boat trip out of the harbour you see Tophane’s houses climbing towards the castle, with the bastion and the shipyard arches at the bottom. That’s the postcard view of old Alanya.

On foot, the best spots are the bends of Tophane Caddesi above the Red Tower and the terrace by the bastion, with the tower, harbour and boats below you. The slope faces east, so morning light falls straight onto the façades; by afternoon the houses are in shade.

Photograph the houses, not into people’s courtyards and windows — residents live here. Ask before taking pictures of them.

Old Town vs Alanya Castle vs the Red Tower

They form one line: castle on top, Tophane on the slope, Red Tower at the bottom. Do them in that order and you only climb once — by cable car.

Alanya’s historic sights compared

Every historic sight in Alanya rated by YesGo. Tap a column heading to sort.

Nearby — add to your day

39

Alanya Shipyard

Alanya, Turkey

30 min · Price being verified · 3 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Alanya Shipyard

38

Red Tower

Alanya, Turkey

45 min · Paid, price being verified · 4 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Red Tower

35

Alanya Castle

Alanya, Turkey

2 h 30 min · Walls free, İç Kale ≈ €12 · 7 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Alanya Castle

38

Damlataş Cave

Alanya, Turkey

30 min · ≈ 225 TL, children less · 21 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Damlataş Cave

How to do it right

• Start at the castle and work downhill — ride up by cable car, walk down through the whole quarter.
• Morning sun lights Tophane’s façades from the sea — the best time for photos.
• Finish at the Red Tower and the shipyard, directly below the quarter.
• A glass of tea on a harbour-view terrace is the best break halfway down.
• For the full picture, take a boat trip from the harbour: from the water the houses climb all the way to the castle.

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