Sixteen centuries before Alaeddin Keykubad made Alanya his residence, the coast of the modern city was known throughout the Mediterranean by another name — Cilicia Trachea. And what made it famous in that era, above all, was piracy.
In the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, the Cilician pirates controlled the sea routes from the Levant to Italy. Their bases lay in the rocky coves between modern-day Alanya and Anamur. The pirates' ships attacked Roman merchant vessels and took wealthy passengers captive (by legend, the young Julius Caesar was among them).
The cliffs around Castle Hill made an ideal hiding place — natural caves, concealed harbours, and the ability to watch the entire sea from on high. Archaeologists still find amphorae and coins in these caves, from Syria to Iberia.
Piracy was brought to an end by Pompey the Great in 67 BC. His famous "Cleansing of the Sea" operation destroyed the pirate fleets in three months, and thousands of former pirates were resettled in Asia Minor as ordinary peasants. Thus Cilicia Trachea became a peaceful province of the Roman Empire.
A trace of that period survives in the local toponymy: the name "Korakesion" (the Greek name for the area) translates as "the ravens' refuge" — a collective image of the pirates of antiquity.