Red Tower (Kizil Kule) & Tersane shipyard

Two sights, one ticket

Down at sea level below the castle, the Red Tower (Kızıl Kule) and the Tersane shipyard sit a short walk apart and share a single combined ticket from about €5 (roughly £4), paid in lira at the counter. Buying the two together is the obvious move — they’re neighbours, not separate excursions.

The tower is the unmistakable symbol of Alanya: a stout, octagonal 1226 structure in red brick and stone, raised to guard the harbour, with a climb up to the top for a view back over the marina and the headland. A few minutes’ walk along the seafront brings you to the Tersane, a row of stone-arched bays cut into the rock — the only surviving Seljuk dockyard in Turkey, where galleys were once built and repaired. It’s modest in scale, but the rarity is the point: there’s nothing else quite like it in the country.

Making it worthwhile

This is a quick stop rather than a headline, so set expectations accordingly: budget about an hour for the pair, with the tower climb taking the most time. The shipyard rewards a slow look more than a rush — the arches and the lap of the water against the stone are the atmosphere you’re paying for.

The smart way to do it is to fold both into a harbour visit rather than make a special trip. Walk the seafront, climb the tower, see the dockyard, then sit down for lunch among the boats on the harbour front — that turns a 15-minute tick-box into a pleasant half-morning. Combine it with the cable car up to Alanya Castle on the same day and you’ve covered the town’s two essential sights, one at the summit and one at the water’s edge. Carry cash in lira, and check the current opening hours on the official site before you go, as they shorten noticeably out of season.