Amuda Castle

Amuda Castle, locally known as Hemite Kalesi, lies on an 80-meter-high limestone hill above the village of Gökçedam on the north bank of the Ceyhan river in the province of Osmaniye in Turkey.

Amuda Castle guarded the river, and it commanded the strategic north-south road from the Amanus pass to Kadirli and Sis. It also has intervisibility with the castles of Anavarza, Tumlu and Toprakkale.

Amuda Castle is first mentioned in the mid-12th century when it was conquered by Thoros II, Prince of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, after he had escaped from captivity in Constantinople.

In 1212 Leo I, King of Armenian Cilicia, was visited by the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, Hermann von Salza. Leo then donated Amuda Castle to the Teutonic Knights for services rendered to his kingdom.

In 1226, Bohemond IV of Antioch, ruler of the Principality of Antioch, was tricked by Baron Constantine of Barbaron into traveling to Amuda Castle in search of his son Philip, whom he believed to be imprisoned there. Bohemond began his march into Cilicia unaware that his son, who had briefly become king of Armenian Cilicia, had already been poisoned in Sis.

An army of Baibars, the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, led by the Emir Al Mansur Qalawun laid siege to Amuda Castle in 1266. It is said that some 2200 refugees had sought safety inside the castle. After the defenders of the castle surrendered, all the men were killed and the women and children were taken to Egypt as slaves. Thereafter, it is unknown whether a Christian garrison occupied the castle again; in the last years of the 13th century it was quietly retaken by the Mamluks. The date that the Teutonic Knights abandoned the fort is unknown.

Amuda Castle is freely accessible, just a short climb uphill from the road below. A nice small castle ruin.

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