Kadifekale

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Kadifekale (literally "the velvet castle" in Turkish) is the name of the hill and of the castle situated on top of the same hill in İzmir, Turkey. It was named in the antiquity Mount Pagos.

It is located at about 2 kilometers away from the seashore and commands a general view of a large part of the urban area of İzmir.

On top stands the impressive ruins of a castle and its walls, built by Lysimachos, a "successor" (diadochus) of Alexander the Great, later a king (306 BC) in Thrace and Asia Minor.

Next to it one finds the ruins of the cisterns built during the Roman period and renovated during the Byzantine period. They formed the centre of the water network of Smyrna. The ruins of this network are still preserved in the agora in downtown Izmir.

In 2007, the metropolitan municipality of İzmir started renovation and restoration works in Kadifekale.