Beçin Castle and Archaeological Site

A few kilometres from Milas, a round, steep rock rises at the edge of a plateau. On top sits the castle of Beçin, and below it, behind heavy walls, lies the city that once served as the capital of the Menteşe emirate, the Turkish principality that ruled this part of ancient Caria from the 13th to the 15th century.

Beçin is one of the few places in Anatolia where you can read the plan of a medieval Turkish town on the ground. Inside the walled lower city, a square is framed by the Ahmed Gazi Madrasa, the Orhan Mosque, tombs, a dervish lodge, the Kızılhan and a domed fountain. Up in the inner castle you will find abandoned houses, a bath, a cistern and even a much older Hellenistic tomb monument.

Excavations by university archaeologists are still under way, so the site changes from year to year as more of the street pattern and its buildings emerge. Come for the views over the Milas plain as much as for the stones.