Twin Castles of the Cilicia: The “Sinap”

Military structures have been built to protect cities and strategic locations and to ensure the road safety in Anatolia throughout the history. Many castles have been built against the attack of Persian and Islamic armies from the east during the Roman and Byzantine periods. There are couple of reasons that many states struggled for the region: it was located on the Hajj route of the Mediterranean region to Jerusalem, had fertile lands that can be harvested several times in a year, provided the connection to the interiors of Anatolia through road lines, and had safe harbors opening to Cyprus, Egypt, and big seas. Defensive structures have gained importance there since the first age to ensure the safety of the road lines. The Byzantine Empire, in particular, fortified the borderlines, built the castles at intersections and defensive structures designed as outposts to prevent Islamic attacks form Umayyads and Abbasids. The Armenians who settled in the Mountainous Cilicia established the principalities in the region. After the Elbistan War (1277), the dominance of the Mamluk Empire gained weight in the region and had a negative impact on the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. When the Mamluks conquered Sis (Kozan) in 1375, the Kingdom came to an end, and after that time, the Ramazanoglu Principality of the Mamluks started to exist in the region. The Mamluk Empire built castles, especially the Kozan Castle, and many existing castles were repaired or renovated during this period in order to ensure the security of the region. The Sinap Castles, which are located in the Central Taurus within the boundaries of Mersin today, are defensive structures showing this feature. The Sinap Castles, which are built on the northern road between Tarsus and Ulukışla near Çamlıyayla district and Çandır village of Mersin, are the post castles to prevent enemy attacks. The post castles are military structures built to protect the borderline, road routes or a strategically important town. In this study, The Sinap Castles, which qualify as the only twin castles of the Anatolia known until now according to our research, are discussed. These unique twin castles of Turkey have been evaluated in terms of the material, technique and decoration and the periodization of the castles has been made by comparing with the other castles of the same age. So; it is found out that these important twin castles of the Middle Age are renovated during the Mamluk period and used.