On the way back to Osmaniye from visiting the Hittite site in the Karatepe-Aslantaş National Park, it’s worth stopping to inspect the ruins at Hierapolis-Castabala which are clearly visible from the road.
Hierapolis is not a major site. Nor is a great deal known about it except that Alexander the Great passed through in 333 BC. The most conspicuous remains are of a colonnade running alongside a stretch of Roman road which trails off into the fields, but if you keep following it you will pass, on the right, the remains of a Byzantine church, before arriving at a theatre. Adrift in the fields beyond some fragmentary brick structures are remains of what was probably a Byzantine bath-house.
So much for Hierapolis. But high up on a rock gazing down on the ruins are the dramatic remains of Castabala (Bodrum or Budrum Kalesi), one of the many castles that adorn this particular part of Turkey, their locations so lofty that they leave the onlooker stupefied at the thought of the labour that must have gone into constructing them.
Again, not much is known about Castabala. Was it built by the Armenians to protect the medieval Kingdom of Cilicia? Or was it built by the Knights of St John to protect the route taken by the Crusaders as they headed for the Holy Land? Sadly, the records to answer such questions don’t exist.
Transport info
Without your own wheels you will need to hire a taxi in Osmaniye to visit the site. You can do this on the way to or from the Karatepe-Aslantaş National Park.
