Image: Alanya06-bazylek

Description: The Kizil Kule (Red Tower) The octagonal shaped building that's the symbol of the city is a work by Selcuks of the 13th century. It was built in 1226 by Ebu Ali Reh el Kettani, a master builder from Aleppo and had built the citadel of Sinop before on the demand of Alaaddin Keykubat, the Sultan of Selcuks. It was made of red bricks, the upper parts of which had been fired, since stone blocks were difficult to lift at a certain height, thus it was given the name of Kizilkule (Red Tower). Marble blocks of the antiquity are seen in the walls of the citadel. The height of the tower that is octagonal in shape is 33 meters and it is 29 meters in diameter, its each wall is 12.5 metres long. There are five floors, including the ground floor. You can go to the top of the tower with the help of stone stairs that are high-spaced and have 85 steps. Sunlight coming from the top of the tower even reaches the first floor. There is a cistern in the middle of the tower. The tower was built in order to protect the harbour and the dockyard from naval attacks and was used for military purposes for centuries. ( www.alanya.com.tr/en/47-Historical-Places.html ) The Seljuk Empire used Alanya as a second capital city in addition to Konya and used the city as a winter residence and made improvements there. Mongol attacks in 1243 and the Invasion of Anatolia by Egyptian Memluks weakened the Seljuk Empire which was divided in 1300, and the region came under the reign of the Karamano?ullar? dynasty. In 1427 Alanya was sold to the Memluk Sultan for five thousand gold pieces, and then in 1471 the city was included within the borders of the Ottoman Empire by Mehmet II The Conqueror.
Title: Alanya06-bazylek
Credit: T�rkiye - Alanya - The Red Tower
Author: Robin & Bazylek from Krak�w, Poland
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
License: CC BY 2.0
License Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0
Attribution Required?: Yes