[4] According to some historians, after the conquest of the Levant by the Arab Caliphate, the Mardaites, Christians following either Miaphysitism or Monothelitism,[5] gained a semi-independent status around the Amanus Mountains within the Byzantine-Arab border region.

[6] Because of the numerous late antique and medieval fortifications built north of the Belen Pass on established west-to-east routes through the Amanus Mountains, there is some confusion about the location of “the” Amanian Gate.

The most likely candidate is just south of the modern Bahçe, which is guarded by the castle of Sarvandikar, built in the 11th and 12th centuries during the period of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.

To the south other fortresses guarding five separate Amanus passes between Cilicia Pedias and the Syria-to-Maraş highway include: Hasanbeyli, Karafrenk, Çardak, Kozcağız, Mitisin, and Mancılık.

Just to the north of Bahçe on a road of considerable antiquity is the Arab fortress of Haruniye (the modern Düziçi), built in the late 8th century and later occupied by the Armenians and the Teutonic Knights.