Şeytan Castle ( tr, Şeytan Kalesi, ka, ქაჯის ციხე, tr) is a castle in the Çıldır district of the

Ardahan Province Ardahan Province ( tr, , ku, Parêzgeha Erdêxanê, ) is a province in the north-east of Turkey, bordering Georgia and Armenia. The provincial capital is the city of Ardahan. Demographics With 94,932 inhabitants in 2021, Ardahan was the third ...

in Turkey. The castle is located 1.5 kilometers northeast of the village of Yıldırımtepe. The cliffs surrounding the castle were as important to its protection as its walls. The castle was used continuously from the Hellenistic era to the Ottoman period, and was renovated or modified by each of its occupiers. It hosts cisterns, a staircase that descends to the water and a chapel. The name of the castle, meaning "the Devil's castle", originates from the myth that an evil spirit or a devil was sighted in the area in the past, which still survives as a superstition among the area's inhabitants. Ekvtime Takaishvili reported the existence of a prison in the castle. It is mentioned in the chronicles of

Alp Arslan Alp Arslan was the second Sultan of the Seljuk Empire and great-grandson of Seljuk, the eponymous founder of the dynasty. He greatly expanded the Seljuk territory and consolidated his power, defeating rivals to the south and northwest, and his v ...

in 1064.Solmaz, Gürsoy. ''Ortaçağ'da Erzurum-Kars kaleleri'', 2000, Atatürk University
p. 34
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seytan Castle Castles in Turkey Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey Ardahan Province Tao-Klarjeti