Adana Travel Guide in Photos

Adana: the Sabanci Merkez Camii reflecting in the Seyhan river

Adana is the 4^th largest city of Turkey, after Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir and has a population of over 2 million. The city is located in the middle of the highly fertile Çukurova, the ancient Cilician plain deposited by the rivers Seyhan and Ceyhan. Due to this fact, Adana has always been an important city and agricultural center, described in the books of the famous Turkish novelist Yashar Kemal. In more recent years the city has also developed as a large industrial centre. Adana's wealth led to a rapid and chaotic growth and nearly all of the old neighbourhoods have been demolished. The high temperature and humidity make it less popular for tourism. However, back in 2004 Adana had the only commercial airport in the region and was the starting point of our trip along Turkey's Mediterranean coast.

Adana's most prominent monument is the Sabancı Merkez Camii, an enormous beatiful new six-minareted mosque whose white marble reflection sparkles in the Seyhan river. The mosque was built by the industrial magnate Sakip Sabancı and was opened in 1999. It is second in size only to the Sülemyaniye Camii in Istanbul. It is crowned by a 51 metre high dome and provides space for 30,000 worshippers. The inside decoration tries to copy Istanbul's Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Camii).

The Sabanci Merkez Camii reflecting in the Seyhan river

Among the other noteworthy buildings of Adana are the Ulu Cami or Great Mosque and next to it the Ramazanoğlu Türbesi. The Ulu Cami was built in 1507 by Halil Bey emir of the Ramazanoğlu Turks in a typical Syrian style. Unfortunately both places were closed at the moment of our visit.

Apart from local industry and the agriculture of the intensely fertile Çukurova, much of Adana's wealth comes from the traffic passing through the Cilician Gates by the D400 highway. The Seyhan Barajı is a large artificial lake 5 km north of the city centre. The Adana Regional Museum (Adana Bölge Müzesi) has some nice exhibits of Roman statuary and mosaics. Especially the 2^nd century Achilles sarcophagus decorated with scenes from the Iliad is worth a visit. It was found at Tarsus in 1958. An interesting historical fact about Adana is that it still carries its original name. The city of Adana was already mentioned as such by the 6^th century Byzantine Greek historian Procopius (Chapter 5) when he describes the famous Roman bridge over the Seyhan river.

We visited Adana as part of our 2004 tour of Turkey's Mediterranean coast and stayed two nights in Hotel Selibra, Inönü Caddesi No. 50, Tel +90-(0)322/363 36 76. The hotel offers basic singles with air-condiitioning and breakfast at about 17 EUR. Near the hotel, next to the Ethnographic Museum, is the Cafe Rose which offers cool beers and small meals at reasonable prices. For Adana's speciality, Adana kebap, try the Guneşoğlu Pub & Restaurant next to the Ismet Inönü monument at the Inönü Caddesi.

Here are the photos of Adana, click on the thumbnails to see greater pictures