Kaleiçi is the historic core of Antalya, wrapped around a sheltered harbour on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. Its name is commonly rendered as “inside the castle,” an apt description of a district shaped by defensive walls and the shoreline. It is not a walled museum frozen in one century: homes, small hotels, restaurants, shops and places of worship occupy the lanes, while the harbour continues to orient the visitor’s walk.
The municipal heritage guide describes the harbour as a natural, sheltered inlet and presents Kaleiçi as a place with a long, continuous history of settlement. Ancient Attaleia was founded under the Attalid ruler Attalos II in the second century BCE; the city later became part of the Roman world. The layers are visible in the street pattern and surviving architecture, but no single building tells the whole story of the port or the people who used it.