Girl Castle, also known as the Sea Castle, was established on a small island on the coast of the neighborhood, which it named. Its distance to the shore is approximately 600 meters. It was learned from an inscription found here that it was built by Leon I in 1199. It was captured by the Kingdom of Cyprus in 1361. Strabo mentions that pirates used the castle as a shelter in the Roman Period. The castle was considered as important by the Byzantines and Armenians as the castle on the land. The entrance to the castle is in the north. Spoiled material was used here. Again, the places where rubble stones were used from time to time probably belong to the Lusignans Period. There are 192 meters long loopholes and 8 bastions in triangular, rectangular and circular shapes are placed on the castle wall. There is a well-preserved gallery along the west wall and a door opening to the sea from here.

A building complex was unearthed in the central area of ​​the castle during the cleaning excavation carried out by the Mersin Archeology Museum. There is a chapel in this building complex. It is understood that this chapel, which has a joint plan with the building group, is older than the other chapel in the courtyard of the castle. In addition, opus sectile flooring was also applied on the floor as well as mosaics. The rooms around it open to the hall in the middle space and the floors of the square-planned rooms rise to the north. There are five lines of writing in a circular braid on the floor mosaic and another inscription on the porch in the western corner of the area. There are also cisterns and workshops within the castle courtyard.

The legend of the Girl Castle

There is also a legend of Girl Castle that is told for different places. “Once upon a time there was a king. He consulted a fortune teller to find out about the future of his only beloved daughter. When she found out that her daughter would die by being bitten by a snake, she built this castle for the princess. One day, the king, who thought that he provided the security of his life, sent a basket of grapes to his daughter. However, the snake hidden in the basket bit the girl to death. " A similar expression is used for the Maiden's Tower in Istanbul.