History

Alanya was established on a small peninsula with the Taurus Mountains in the North and the Mediterranean Sea in the South. Since it was located on the line between Pamphylia and Cilicia in ancient times, it was sometimes referred to as Pamphylia and sometimes as Cilicia.

There is no definite information about the first settlement of Alanya. The researches carried out by Prof Dr Kılınç KÖKTEN in the Kadıini Cave, located 12 km from the city center in 1957, show that the history of the region dates back to the Upper Paleolithic (20,000-17,000 BC).

It is not yet known when and by whom Alanya was founded for the first time. The oldest known name of the city is Korakesium. In the Byzantine period, it was named Kalanoros. In the 13th century, Allaaddin Keykubat (1200-1237), one of the Anatolian Seljuk Rulers, took the castle and changed the name of the city to Alaiye. Atatürk, who visited the city in 1935, named it Alanya. (The first mention of Korekesium is Scylax, one of the ancient geographers of the 4th century BC. During this period, the region was under the rule of the Persians, who invaded a significant part of Anatolia. Later, the famous ancient writer Strabon, Piri Reis, Seyyep, İbn-i Batuta and Evliya Celebi are travelers who visited the region and they talk about the city in their works.

We do not have much information about the early ages of the region and the Byzantine period. During the Arab raids in the 7th century AD, the city defense gained more importance and the castle constructions were given priority to protect against the raids. It is dated..

One of the Anatolian Seljuk rulers, Alaaddin Keykubad I, defeated Kyr Vart, who was one of the Christian dynasties and ruled in the Alanya castle, in 1221 and captured the castle. The ruler had a palace built here in his name. The Seljuks, besides the capital Konya, used Alanya as a second capital and winter center and carried out construction activities.

The Mongol attacks in 1243, the entry of the Egyptian Mamluks into Anatolia in 1277, the Seljuks were worn out, the Seljuk State was disintegrated in 1300 and the region was sold by the Karamanoğulları to the Mamluk Sultan for five thousand gold, and then in 1471, during the reign of Fatih Sultan Mehmet, it was taken into the borders of the Ottoman State.

Alanya, together with Tarsus, was connected to the province of Cyprus in 1571 and became the sanjak of the province of Konya in 1864. It was connected to Antalya in 1868 and became the district of this province in 1871.