Adana, Turkey

Adana is the fourth largest city in Turkey and the capital of the Adana Province. It has a population of 1 130 710 (2000). NATO's Incirlik Airbase is located 12 km east of Adana.Adana is the marketing and distribution center for an agricultural region in which cotton, wheat, barley, grapes, citrus fruits, olives, and tobacco are produced. The chief industries in the city are textile manufacturing, tanning, and the processing of wool and various foods. Local points of interest include a great stone bridge, built in part during the reign (6th century) of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, and the ruins of a castle dating from 782. Adana was probably founded in 63 BC by the Roman statesman Pompey the Great. For several centuries thereafter it was a way station on a Roman military road leading to the East. The city declined in importance after the fall of the Roman Empire in AD476 but was rebuilt in the 8th century by Harun al-Rashid, caliph of Baghdad. Adana was held by Egypt from 1832 to 1840, when it was restored to Turkish rule.Adana, a modern-day city located on the right bank of the Seyhan River in the Cilician plain, was a caravan stop, river crossing, and frontier outpost protecting Asia Minor from incursions from Syria. (Tarsus was closer to the Cilician Gate.) The history of Adana is mixed with that of Tarsus; they and guarded the western front against surprise attack. Adana, now one of the large towns of Asia Minor, about nineteen miles from the sea, derives its importance from its situation as the gateway to the Cilician plain, that great flat stretch of fertile land, possibly the most productive in this part of the world, (on east side of Taurus Mtns). In Adana all the houses are flat-topped and the roofs serve as the bedrooms for the inhabitants during the hot summers. Adana was more important for it's agriculture while Tarsus was the metropolis of the area. Several types of fruit are native to this area, the apricot being an example.From Adana, crossing the Cilician plain going west, the road from Tarsus enters the foothills of the Taurus Mountains. With every foot of ascent the coolness increases, reaching an altitude of nearly 4000 feet. Then through the famous Cilician Gates, that rocky pass through which armies have coursed since history's dawn, and the caravan has arrived on the Anatolian plain.