Aqaba Castle, Medieval fortress on the Red Sea coast in Aqaba, Jordan

Aqaba Castle is a medieval fortress on the Red Sea coast in the Jordanian city of Aqaba. The structure has a rectangular layout with four corner towers and a fortified main gate, all built from local coral stone.

The Mamluks rebuilt the fortress in 1507 under Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh Al-Ghuri, whose inscription runs along the vaulted room inside the gate; a medallion above it records Ottoman sultan Murad III's work of 1587. It began as a khan for Egyptian pilgrims on the Hajj, was strengthened as a military post under Egyptian control in 1841, and in July 1917 fell to an Arab camel charge during the Battle of Aqaba.

Two inscriptions in the gatehouse name the rulers behind the stonework: one praises Mamluk sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh Al-Ghuri (r. 1501–1516), the other, set in a medallion above it, honours Ottoman sultan Murad III, who carried out substantial work in 1587. The entrance is also marked by a panel with the Hashemite coat of arms, placed there to commemorate the 1917 Arab victory.

The fortress sits right next to the harbor and is easy to reach on foot from central Aqaba. Going in the morning helps avoid the midday heat and makes it more comfortable to walk through the interior spaces.

Excavations inside the fortress have uncovered traces of seven different occupation layers, showing that the site was in use long before the stone walls visible today were raised. These buried layers point to peoples who settled here across many different periods of history.