Beçin Kalesi
A hilltop castle near Milas that became a medieval Turkish capital, now a quiet field of ruins.
The Turkish name
Beçin Kalesi
At a glance
- Province
- Muğla, Milas
- Seat of
- Menteşe Beyliği, 14th century
- Ibn Battuta's visit
- 1332
- UNESCO
- Tentative list, 2012
Read more
This page was written from these sources.
- Beçin ↗Wikipedia · Checked 2026-09-23
The story
Beçin Kalesi stands on a hill above the plain south of Milas. It was built in Byzantine times, and in the 14th century the Menteşe beys made it their seat. Its name appears in older texts as Pezona, Berçin and Peçin.
The Arab traveller Ibn Battuta visited in 1332 and met Orhan Bey here; he wrote of a new town on a hill with fine buildings and a Friday mosque whose foundations had just been laid. Beçin came under Ottoman rule around 1390, and when the seat of government moved away the town declined; by the 18th century it was abandoned.
Inside and below the walls stand the Ahmed Gazi Medresesi, the Orhan Camii, the Kızıl Han and other buildings of the beylik. Excavations in 2001 and 2002 found more than 30 kg of Ottoman silver coins in leather purses.
