Kozan Castle (Medieval: Sis Castle ) is a castle in Kozan,

Adana Province Adana Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality of Turkey located in central Cilicia. The administrative seat of the province is the city of Adana, home to 78.25% of the r ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. The castle is situated on a high hill at . high Kozan city is just to the north of the castle. All nearby castles (like

Anavarza Castle Anvarza Castle is an ancient castle in Adana Province, Turkey. Geography The castle lies to the east of Dilekkaya village of Kozan district. Visitors follow Turkish state highway D.400 and the highway to north for and turn to east for . Alth ...

and

Yılankale Yılankale ( in Turkish) is a late 12th–13th century Armenian castle in Adana Province of Turkey. It is known in Armenian as Levonkla ( "Levon's fortress") after its possible founder—King Leo (Levon) I the Magnificent (r. 1198/9–1219) of ...

) are observable from Kozan castle.Kozan Municipality page
There is no record of fortifications at the site prior to the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

period.Robert W. Edwards, ''The Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia'', p234, 1987. In 705 an Arab attack on the town was repelled, but its Christian population later abandoned the settlement and Sis became a fortified frontier post of the Abbasid's. In 962 a Byzantine army under

Nikephoros II Phokas Nikephoros II Phokas (; – 11 December 969), Latinized Nicephorus II Phocas, was Byzantine emperor from 963 to 969. His career, not uniformly successful in matters of statecraft or of war, nonetheless greatly contributed to the resurgence of t ...

recaptured Sis, but nothing is known about its subsequent history until its capture in 1113 by Toros I, ruler of Cilician Armenia. After Kozan was captured by the

Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, also known as Cilician Armenia, Lesser Armenia, Little Armenia or New Armenia, and formerly known as the Armenian Principality of Cilicia, was an Armenian state formed during the High Middle Ages by Armenian ...

, the city became its capital after the capital was transferred from Anavarza sometime between 1180 and 1190. Almost all of the castle dates from the period of the Armenian kingdom, the main possible exceptions being a vaulted entrance corridor which could be a

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

-era (i.e., post 1375) construction and which carries an Arabic inscription, and, beyond this corridor and at the rear of the Armenian-constructed main entrance, a simpler gateway that may have been the original Byzantine entrance to the site. Inside the castle are the remains of two Armenian chapels - both probably from the 13th century. Both are heavily ruined; one is located in the central spur of the castle, the other inside a semicircular tower in the east wall of the southeast bailey. The castle consists of two sections in a single outer rampart. There are 44 bastions on the rampart. The inner castle is in the southern section. There are also utility vaults used for storage. The royal palace of the Armenian kings was a separate fortified structure located just below the castle. It was destroyed in 1375 during the Mamluk siege and capture of Sis. Two corner towers of its

donjon A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residenc ...

remain standing.
citing Lévon Nordiguian, ''La cathédrale de Sis. Essai de reconstitution'' in ''Les Arméniens de Cilicie. Habitat, mémoire et identité'', Presses de l’Université Saint-Joseph, Beyrouth, 2012.

References

External sources

Images of the castle

Images of the castle

Carefully documented photographic survey and plan of Sis Castle / Kozan
{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Adana Province Armenian buildings in Turkey Byzantine fortifications in Turkey Kozan, Adana