Three Cilician Castles

Abstract

The 1962 Cambridge Expedition to South-East Turkey spent five weeks in Cilicia studying the castles of Tumlu, Gökvelioğlu, and Yılan. No member of the expedition had any previous experience of this work and this report is therefore confined to facts: descriptions, measurements, plans and photographs. It is hoped that this material may help others, more experienced than ourselves, to make wider generalisations and perhaps to write the architectural history of the buildings.The castles probably date from the period of the Armenian occupation of Cilicia (1080–1375) during which time numerous castles were constructed and existing Byzantine foundations were strengthened. The castles were frequently built upon precipitous mountain sites and conformed with the sinuosities of the rock, thus making the best of the natural strength of the site. The kingdom of Lesser Armenia was centred chiefly on the Cilician plain and surrounding mountains (Fig. 1).