In Roman times the walls were first renovated and decorated with numerous towers and gates, of which the greatest was the Hadrian’s Gate (130 A.D), well preserved to our times.

In the 8th and the 9th century, Antalya became a battleground between Arab and Byzantine armies. The rulers of Constantinople won and quickly repaired and strengthened the city fortifications.

The further renovation took place in the mid-12th century, after the Second Crusade, during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I.
In 1207 Antalya was taken over by the Seljuk Turks, who immediately began to strengthen the fortifications. In the 13th century, four towers were built, three of them are partly preserved.

When, in 1361, the king of Cyprus, Peter, conquered Antalya after a quick attack from the sea, the walls were decorated by the carvings of coats of arms. Currently, these decorations are in the local museum.

Antalya finally came under Ottoman control in 1387, and the walls were rebuilt again and again at the behest of successive sultans, in the early 19th century.

Even 70 years ago almost all the walls were well preserved, despite the battles fought over the city, numerous insurgencies, and earthquakes.
From the end of 1800 until the 1980’s the process of destruction of the walls continued.

No maintenance was carried out during this period, and long stretches of the walls that impeded the development of the city were intentionally demolished. People living in Antalya believed that the walls were interrupting the airflow, they said it needed more access to fresh air.

In fact, the stones collected from the walls were used to build mansions outside the historic quarter and the fate of the walls was completely ignored.

As a result, only seven towers and several sections of the walls have been preserved to our times.

In order to see the preserved sections of Antalya city walls, visit Kaleiçi district. Near the beautifully restored Hadrian’s Gate there is a long section of walls along Atatürk Boulevard.