It is stated that Ruler Fahreddin Behram Shah (1162-1225) made important additions to the castle in 1184.

It was restorated and repaired many times by the Ottomans, suffered great damage, however, during the Armenian uprising in 1915.

The pointed-arched castle entrance, called the Seljuk Gate, is accessed through a staircase, and is flanked by two semicircular towers.

The most important of these is the water tunnel called "Kırk Badal" (literally: Forty Steps).

According to the travelogue Seyahatnâme of Evliya Çelebi (1611–1682), there were seventy houses within the castle, many cisterns, wheat warehouses and the Küçük Fatih Mosque.