Gaziantep Castle

If your in the city this attraction is well worth a visit. If you are really interested in the history, there is alot of text you can read while walking through the museum part of this site on your way up to the tip of the castle. Once you get on the top most of the area you can't really look out, but there's a viewing area were you can look and take photos. 30-60 min is enough at this attraction in my opinion. If I were to come back with friends I would probably take them to see it, but seeing it once is enough. Overall a nice attraction that's worth a visit.

The castle /fortress is very well preserved. Inside there is a small museum for the battle for Gaziantep during the Turkish War of Independence. Amazing view to the city from the top.

Nice castle and pretty big, encompasses a lot of old-fashioned shops and Mosques around, they are really eye catching and attractive, there are too a lot of restaurants, the area there has touristic character
This castle does have a huge similarity with Aleppo citadel which is the biggest castle in the world

One the main historical places of old town Gazinatep. Gaziantep Castle is a castle first built by the Hittite Empire as an observation point and later built into a main castle by the Roman Empire on top of a hill at the center of Gaziantep, Turkey, in 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. It underwent further expansion and renovation under Emperor Justinianus between 527 and 565 AD. The entrance fee is 10TL paying with bank card.

The guys at the gate were very friendly and helpful.

My card didn't work, so someone offered to pay and I paid him in cash.

Amazing experience. Only 10 lira (~.50 cents USD). An historic place, with a story to tell, from Hittite times to Roman and Byzantine, to the more recent times of the War of Independence. You will be surrounded by ruins from eras spanning thousands of years, and unlike the adversaries of the old proprietors of the castle, you will be allowed easy entry, after crossing the old drawbridge site that hangs over a Byzantine moat, and brought through the main gate into a passageway that spirals to the terrace access point. Along the way in this spiral hall you will find much information in Turkish and English about the history of Gaziantep in the context of the Fall of the Ottoman Empire up to the War of Independence. It is a bit overwhelming and dense, to be honest. I found myself skipping the majority of the reading, but on arriving to the top you do feel yourself looking over history in a way as it plays itself out now.

Great experience! Whether you're interested in history or not you must visit the castle! You'll fall for the 3d painting of the historical events! If you're a fan of over the top view of the city you'll love the scenery!

Cool place and a lot of history. Beautiful view over the city and like 10 lira entre

Oh what a beautiful castle it is with stunning history behind it. They recently discovered doors openning to tunnels under the castle that goes long way to different strategic locations of the city. Noon time would be too hot. Maybe go here early morning or late afternoon. Give it and hour or two depending on your taste. Located near downtown, near other museums and attractions.

Gaziantep Castle

Gaziantep is a large city in southern Turkey with over one million people in its metropolitan area and a long history as a city above Mesopotamia and the Levant as well as a crossing point to the Taurus Mountains into Anatolia. As such, it contains a large, hilltop castle at the center with a park, museums, restaurants, shops and homes all around it. It is quite imposing in its height and wouldn’t be easy to attack if you were so inclined. At the bottom, a ditch fortified with a stone counterscarp and scarp lines the base of the hill and loopholes are inserted into the side of the scarp which lets defenders fire arrows at attackers who climb down the ditch. Atop the scarp is a large rampart of earth, the hill itself, cloaked in a layer of stone and forming a natural talus. On top of this wall sits the actual castle which is roughly circular and consists of 12 towers linked through curtain walls. There are circular towers, square towers (common in Muslim castles), polygonal towers and at least one horseshoe tower which have different architectural elements. These include corbels and windows below the top, as well as loopholes at the base for firing arrows along with loopholes in the walls for the same reason. The parapet is not crenellated (likely because the natural defenses are more than sufficient) however something may have been there in the past as the corbels should have been used for something. One of the towers (to the far right) specifically has a bretèche with machicolations which let you throw things down at people underneath them. The main entrance to the castle is a gateway arch which leads to a small bridge spanning the ditch. On the other side is a cobbled path heading up to the castle’s main gate. The gate is quite large but upon entering you’ll notice that the interior isn’t a courtyard but a long hallway which is at an incline going upwards. You’ll eventually emerge at the top of the castle, filled in with dirt, with a walkway behind the stone walls. It could just as easily be called the Citadel of Gaziantep for its height and resemblance to Aleppo or Damascus save for the fact that the hills around the city are higher.
If you were to go about assaulting this castle it wouldn’t be easy. The typical strategy of taking a castle by force (if tricks or treating is unavailable) involve climbing over its walls to try and open the main gate to let your army inside or assaulting the walls with siege weapons and possibly combining this with mining/sapping the walls to collapse them and let the soldiers run in. Specifically, this hill forms a talus which leans back from the attackers and makes it harder to use any sort of ladder. Descending into the ditch to start scaling the walls is also dangerous because of all the loopholes which let archers shoot at you and the walls and machicolations which lets the defenders drop things on top of you. You could fill in the ditch with dirt and try to make a rampart up to the castle walls but this would be difficult with attacks coming from above and the steep incline needed for construction. Siege engines such as catapults, trebuchets, ballistae and battering rams would damage the castle but they don’t help you get up to the top of the walls and you’re not going to sap a hill.

Gaziantep, the Veteran Antep or simply the city of the Veterans, as I would like to call it. It is the only one of its kind in Turkish history and has bravely fought against the foreign incursion and invasion of the british and french forces. No wonder, Gazi - Antep that is Veteran - Antep, it is called. The city is well noted for its nuts, kebap meat and a popular soup known as beyban. The people are very hospitable.

Nice castle over a very huge rock in the city center
Sad thing that all view points are closed for safety

Great Castle. You should come and visit. Specially view of Antep is wonderful....

The museum is a place of interest. And Turkey is the city of museums. And the exhibits at the Gaziantep Museum were remarkable. I have been fascinated by the ancient civilizations.

İ was very thrilled 😁😄 amazing 😍🤩 you feel as if you live in an old cartoon where the castle 🏰 is near ,, a huge great castle really inside it there is a museum around the castle there is many other must see museums,, and os course many old historical famous restaurants tyat prepare the special culture based Gaziantep food .

Wonderful city with rich history culture and food

What a magnificent place, I was amazed
A must visit for people traveling to Gazientep

It is a castle to see how much brave heart Antep Residents during civil war

Gaziantep Castle is the first castle built by the Hittite Empire as an observation point and later built into a major castle by the Roman Empire on top of a hill in the center of Aintep, Turkey in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. The castle underwent further expansion and renovation during the reign of Emperor Justinian The first in the period between 527 and 565 AD. The perimeter of the castle is circular in shape and it is located on an area of ​​1200 meters.
The castle walls are built of stone and the castle consists of 12 towers.
The castle was renovated several times and took its final form in the year 2000. Today, the castle is used as a panoramic museum, which documents the heroics of the city's defense against the French armed forces, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and the museum works periodically.
The castle is located in the middle of the city, rising on a hill overlooking the city.
Surrounded by old markets and traditional industries, it is a microcosm of the historic Aleppo Citadel in its urban style. Very nice and amazing place to visit.

If you come to Gaziantep, the castle is the first thing you should ever visit. It relays a big part of recent Antep's history.