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DISCOVER ANAMUR
Anamur is a district of the province of Mersin, on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey, between Alanya and the city of Mersin.
Anamur is Turkey's southernmost point, a coastal resort famous for its bananas and peanuts.
Anamur has mutated from the Greek Anemurium meaning windy point.
 HISTORY OF ANAMUR
Founded by the Phoenicians, the city was then occupied by the Assyrians and Hittites. During the Hittite period in the twelfth century B.C., the ruler Tuthalia IV, granted Anemorium to Mattuvata who had taken refuge in his kingdom. Mattuvata took advantage of the Hittites' weakness, establishing his own kingdom with Anemorium as its capital.
His rule extended as far as Afyon, in central Anatolia. Then the city came under the control of the Phoenicions again, and later Persians.
In 333 BC Alexander the Great brought this coast within his Macedonian Empire, and he was succeeded by Seleucids and then Ancient Romans.
The coast was given by Mark Anthony to Cleopatra as a wedding present and Roman coins have been discovered in the course of excavation, dating to the years between Emperors Titus (A.D. 79-81) and Valevianus (A.D. 253--259). The Romans were succeeded by the Byzantines.
Ihe city was first occupied by an Islamic Army in the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab. Turkish people reached the city in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In the thirteenth century, the Karamanoglu, a clan in Central Anatolia, expanded their borders towards the city, building the Alakopru bridge (which can still be seen on the road to Ankara) and conquering the city in 1230.
ANAMUR TODAY
The local economy depends on agriculture, especially bananas and strawberries. The weather here is very, very hot and this is the only part of Turkey that can sustain bananas, there are banana plants everywhere and now other tropical fruits such as papaya, pineapples and avocados are being planted here too. Anamur produces 40% of Turkey's strawberries. A traditional local speciality is taro.
Although there are places of historical interest, long beaches and a clean sea there is no large scale tourism on this part of the coast as the coast road in both directions is winding and really slow to drive, and the road over the mountains into central Turkey is even worse; it takes 5 hours to get here by bus from either Mersin or Antalya. So although some people from central Anatolia have holiday homes here, Anamur is a quiet isolated town with no nightlife, and in winter is very quiet indeed.
The beaches are important nesting gounds for the sea turtle caretta caretta and the rocky areas of coastline are inhabited by the Mediterranean Monk Seal.
The military have a base here, on the coast.
The island of Cyprus is a way offshore and at weekends there are sea crossings to Kyrenia (three and a half hours).
SITES TO VISIT
- Mamure, the old Crusader castle, well-preserved, about 7 km south east of Anamur. Originally built by the Romans in the third or fourth century AD, it was enlarged by the Byzantine Empire and the Crusaders. After the Seljuk Turkish Sultan 'Ala' ad-Din Kay-Qubad captured the castle in 1221, he had it rebuilt in its present form. It consists of three courtyards with 39 towers, surrounded by a moat.
In one courtyard there is an ancient mosque with a minaret – built by Mehmet Bey of Karamanooullary in 1300-1308 – which is still open for prayer. There are the ruins of a bathhouse on the opposite side. The castle is in two sections with two lines of ramparts between them, a walkway along the ramparts links the two sides.
- Anemurium, the remains of the antique city, built between 400 BC and 400 AD. 6 km southwest of Anamur, on the coast. The stone walls of the city are still partly intact and there are many mosaics. The theatre is still largely intact and there is enough left of the city’s two-storey Roman bathhouse to give a good impression of what it was in its heyday, with changing rooms, a hot section, a warm section, and a hall with a pool.
On the entrance gate a sign written Latin says “Welcome to the baths, have a good bath.” The city had an elaborate water supply system, as illustrated by the remains of the aqueducts. There is also an acropolis containing the ruins of a palace, which had its own private water supply. Around the city walls there are many Roman funerary temples, which even have small entrance halls for visitors.
- Many caves inclusing Cukurpinar, one of the longest in the world, (1420m) and Kosekbuku (the air is said to be treatment for asthma or malaria);
From Wikipedia
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