Adana

Adana is situated in Turkey, between Turkey (Kayseri, Nigde, Mersin, Hatay, Osmaniye, Kahramanmaras). Its coordinates are 37°22′06″N 35°42′22″E.

Geography:

Adana Province has a surface area of 14.030 km². Southern portion of the province is plain, northern section is formed of mountains.

Population:

The population of the Adana Province is 2,085,225. 88% of the population lives in the urban areas making the province one of the most urbanized provinces in Turkey. Annual population growth of the province is %1.12 below the average growth of the nation. %76 of the province residents corresponding to a population of 1,591,518, live in the Adana metropolis.

Parks and Conservation Areas:

Akyatan Lagoon is a large wildlife refuge which acts as a stopover for migratory birds voyaging from Africa to Europe. Wildlife refuge has a 14700-hectar area made up of forests, lagoon, marsh, sandy and reedy lands. Akyatan lake is a nature wonder with endemic plants and endangered bird species living in it together with other species of plants and animals. 250 species of birds are observed. The conservation area is located 30 km south of Adana, near Tuzla.

Yumurtalık Nature Reserve covers an area of 16,430 hectares within the Seyhan-Ceyhan delta, with its lakes, lagoons and wide collection of plant and animal species. The area is an important location for many species of migrating birds, the number gets higher during the winters when the lakes become a shelter when other lakes further north freeze.

Aladağlar National Park, located north of Adana, is a huge park of around 55,000 hectares, the summit of Demirkazik at 3756m is the highest point in the middle Taurus mountain range. There is a huge range of flora and fauna, and visitors may fish in the streams full of trout. Wildlife includes wild goats, bears, lynx and sable. The most common species of plant life is black pine and cluster pine trees, with some cedar dotted between, and fir trees in the northern areas with higher humidity. The Alpine region, from the upper borders of the forest, has pastures with rocky areas and little variety of plant life because of the high altitude and slope.

Adana is a city in Turkey and a major agricultural and commercial center. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, 30 kilometres inland from the Mediterranean Sea, in south-central Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Adana Province has a population of almost 1.6 million, making the city fifth most populous in Turkey.

Adana-Mersin Metropolitan Area, with a population of 3 million, stretches over 100 kilometres from east to west and 25 kilometres from north to south; encompassing the cities of Mersin, Tarsus, Adana and Ceyhan. It is the fourth largest metropolitan area in Turkey and one of the country's leading centres of commerce and culture.

Adana lies in the heart of Çukurova, a geographical, economical and cultural region that covers the provinces of Mersin, Adana, Osmaniye and Hatay. Home to approximately six million people, the region is mostly a large stretch of flat, fertile land regarded as one of the most agriculturally productive areas of the world.

According to numerous sources, the name Adana is derived from the Hittite Adaniya of Kizzuwatna, while others assert that it is related to the legendary character Danaus, or to the Danaoi, a mythological Greek tribe who came from Egypt and established themselves in the Greek city Argos.The earlier Egyptian texts for a country Danaja are inscriptions from Thutmosis II (1437 BC) and Amenophis III (1390-1352 BC). After the collapse of the Mycenean civilization (1200 BC) some refugeees from the Aegean area went to the coast of Cilicia.The inhabitants Dananayim or Danuna are identified as one group of the sea-peoples who attacked Egypt on 1191 BC during the reign of Ramesses III. Denyen are identified as inhabitants of the city Adana. It is also possible that the name is connected with the da-nu, Da-na-vo, Skythian nomad people, water demons in Rigveda (Danavas).

In the Iliad of Homer, the city is called Adana. In Hellenistic times, it was known as Antiochia in Cilicia or Antiochia ad Sarum. The editors of The Helsinki Atlas tentatively identify Adana as Quwê, the Neo-Assyrian capital of Quwê province. The name also appears as Coa, and may be the place referred to in the Bible, where King Solomon obtained horses.

According to an ancient Greco-Roman legend, the name has its origins in Adanus and Sarus, the two sons of Uranus, who came to a place near the Seyhan River, where they built Adana. An older legend relates the city's name to Adad, the Thunder God in the Akkadian, Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian and Hittite mythologies, who was believed to live in the nearby forest, and whose name was given to the region. The Hittites' names and writings have been found in the area, evidencing this possibility. The theory goes that since the Thunder God brought so much rain and this rain in turn brought such great abundance in this particular region, this god was loved and respected by its inhabitants and, in his honor, the region was called the "Uru Adaniyya;" in other words "The Region of Ada."

Adana's name has had many different versions over the centuries: Adanos, Ta Adana, Uru Adaniya, Erdene, Edene, Ezene, Batana, Atana, Azana, Addane.

Adana is located at the northeastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea, where it serves as the gateway to the Çukurova plain, which has historically been known in the West as the Cilicia plain. This large stretch of flat, fertile land lies southeast of the Taurus Mountains.

From Adana, crossing the Çukurova westwards, the road from Tarsus enters the foothills of the Taurus Mountains. The temperature decreases with every foot of ascent, as the road reaches an altitude of nearly 1,200 m. It goes through the famous Cilician Gates, the rocky pass through which armies have coursed since the dawn of history, and continues to the Anatolian plain.

The north of the city is surrounded by the Seyhan reservoir and HEP, which was completed in 1956. The dam was constructed for hydroelectric power and to irrigate the lower Çukurova plain. Two irrigation channels in the city flow to the plain, passing through the city center from east to west. There is another canal for irrigating the Yüreğir plain to the southeast of the city.

Adana has a typical Mediterranean climate. Winters are mild and wet and summers are hot and dry. The highest recorded temperature was on 8 July 1978 with 44.0 °C. The lowest recorded temperature was on 30 January 1980 with −4.2 °C.

The history of Adana goes back more than 3,000 years; archaeological finds in the region have revealed human settlements dating from the Paleolithic Age. Tepebağ Tumulus, where archaeologists found a stone wall and a city center, was built in the Neolithic Age; it is considered to be the oldest city of the Çukurova region. A place called Adana is mentioned by name in a Sumerian epic, the Epic of Gilgamesh, but the geography of this work is too imprecise to identify its location.

According to the Hittite inscription of Kava, found in Hattusa, Kizzuwatna was the first kingdom that ruled Adana, under the protection of the Hittites by 1335 BC. At that time, the name of the city was Uru Adaniyya, and the inhabitants were called Danuna. Beginning with the collapse of the Hittite Empire, c. 1191-1189 BC, invasions from the west caused a number of small kingdoms to take control of the plain, as follows: Kue Assyrians, 9th century BC; Persians, 6th century BC; Alexander the Great in 333 BC; Seleucids; the pirates of Cilicia; Roman statesman Pompey the Great; and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.

The history of Adana is intrinsically linked to the history of Tarsus; they often seem to be the same city, moving as the neighbouring Seyhan River changed its position, and the name changed too over the course of centuries. Adana was of relatively minor importance during the Roman period, while nearby Tarsus was the metropolis of the area. During the era of Pompey, the city was used as a prison for the pirates of Cilicia. For several centuries thereafter, it was a waystation on a Roman military road leading to the East. After the permanent split of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, the area became a part of the Byzantine Empire, and was probably developed during the time of Julian the Apostate. With the construction of large bridges, roads, government buildings, irrigation and plantation, Adana and Cilicia became the most developed and important trade centers of the region. Ayas, and Kozan were the other major urban and administrative centers in the area, especially during the period of the Cilicians.

In the mid 7th century, the city was captured by the Arabs. According to an Arab historian of that era, the name of the city was derived from Ezene, the prophet Yazene's grandson.

The Byzantines recaptured Adana in 964. After the victory of Alp Arslan at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Seljuk Turks overran much of the Byzantine Empire. They had reached and captured Adana sometime before 1071 and continued to hold the place until Tancred, a leader of the First Crusade, captured the city in 1097.

In 1132, it was captured by the forces of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, under its king, Leo I. It was taken by Byzantine forces in 1137, but the Armenians regained it around 1170. In 1268, there was a terrible earthquake which destroyed much of the city. Adana was rebuilt and remained a part of the Kingdom of Cilician Armenia until 1359, when the city was ceded by Constantine III to the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt in return for obtaining a peace treaty. The Mamluks' capture of the city allowed many Turkish families to settle in it. The Ramazanoğlu family, one of the Turkish families brought by the Mamluks, ruled Adana until the Ottomans captured the city.

From the end of the Renaissance to the modern era (1517–1918), the Ottoman Empire ruled the area.

In the 1830s, in order to secure Egypt's independence from the Ottoman Empire, the army of Muhammad Ali Pasha, the vali of Ottoman Egypt and Sudan, invaded Syria on two occasions, and reached the Adana plain. The soldiers of Muhammad Ali Pasha destroyed Adana Castle and the Walls, a major hit to city's history. The subsequent peace treaty secured Egypt's independence, but required the evacuation of all Egyptian forces from Syria, and its return to Ottoman sovereignty. In the aftermath, Adana was established as a province in its own right.

The Adana massacre occurred in the Ottoman Vilayet of Adana in April 1909. A religious-ethnic clash in the province amid governmental upheaval resulted in a series of anti-Armenian pogroms throughout the district. Reports estimated that the massacres in the entire Vilayet of Adana resulted in about 25,000 deaths. In 1915, Ottoman troops rounded up all Armenians (approx. 20,000) living in the city of Adana and marched them out into the Syrian desert in the course of the Armenian Genocide, resulting in the complete eradication of the Armenian communities in and around the city.

After World War I, the Ottoman government surrendered control of the city to French troops, and the four battalions of the French Armenian Legion were sent to occupy Adana and oversee the repatriation of Armenian refugees. The French forces were, however, spread too thinly in the region and, as they came under withering attacks by Muslim elements both opposed and loyal to Mustafa Kemal Pasha, eventually reversed their policies in the region. The Armenian Legion was gradually disbanded, the repatriation was halted, and the French ultimately abandoned all pretensions to Cilicia, which they had originally hoped to attach to their mandate over Syria. On October 20, 1921, the Treaty of Ankara was signed between France and the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Based on the terms of the agreement, France recognized the end of the Cilicia War, and French troops together with the remaining Armenian volunteers withdrew from the city on January 5, 1922.

On 30 January 1943, British prime minister Winston Churchill secretly met with Turkish president İsmet İnönü inside a train wagon at the Yenice Station, 23 kilometres outside of Adana. Churchill wanted Turkey to join the Second World War on the side of the Allies; the details of which were later discussed at the Second Cairo Conference in December 1943, which was attended by İnönü, Churchill and Roosevelt.

The city was hit by a 6.2 magnitude earthquake (1998 Adana-Ceyhan earthquake) on June 27, 1998. The disaster killed 145 and left 1,500 people wounded and many thousand homeless in the city. The total economic loss was estimated about US$ 1 billion.

Adana is one of the first industrialized city and currently one of the economically developed cities of Turkey. With the construction of Seyhan Dam and improvements in agricultural techniques, there was an explosive growth in agricultural production during 1950s. Large-scale industries were built along D-400 state road and Karataş road. Service industry, especially banking, also developed during this period.

Adana is the marketing and distribution center for Çukurova agricultural region, where cotton, wheat, corn, soy bean, barley, grapes and citrus fruits are produced in great quantities. Farmers of Adana produce half of the corn and soy bean in Turkey. 34% of Turkey's peanut and 29% of Turkey's orange is harvested in Adana. Most of the farming and agricultural-based companies of the region have their offices in Adana.

Adana is an industrialized city where large-scale industry is based mostly on agriculture. Textile and leather are the major industry constituting 29% of Adana's manufacturing, plant oil and processed food manufacturing plants are also numerous. As of 2008, Adana has 11 companies in Turkey's top 500 industrial firms. The largest company of Adana, Temsa Global, in automotive manufacturing, has more than 2,500 employees and manufactures 4,000 buses annually. Marsan-Adana is the largest margarine and plant oil factory in Turkey. Advansa Sasa is Europe's largest polyester manufacturer employing 2,650. Organized Industrial Region of Adana has an area of 1,225 hectar and hosts almost 300 plants, mostly medium-scale.

A leading commercial center in southern Turkey, city hosts regional headquarters of many corporates and public institutions. TÜYAP Exhibition and Congress Center hosts fairs, business conferences and currently it is the main meeting point for businesses in Çukurova. Academic oriented 2000-seater Congress Center is expected to open in 2010 at Çukurova University campus. Tourism industry is developing as luxury hotels are built on the banks of Seyhan River and along D-400 state road. Hilton International, Seyhan and Sürmeli hotels are the 5-star hotels of the city. Sheraton and Türkmen hotels on the east bank of the river are currently under construction.

Media in Adana runs by national and local agencies. Yeni Adana is the oldest living newspaper in Adana dating back to 1918. Ekspres, Toros and Bölge are other local newspapers who serve not only to Adana, but to Çukurova in general. Çukurova TV is the largest broadcasting company.Kanal A, Akdeniz TV and Kent TV are the other major broadcasters. Many national newspapers have their regional publishing centers in Adana. Hürriyet publishes a supplement paper, Hürriyet Çukurova, the most popular regional newspaper that has circulation of 48,000.

Traditional shops, modern shops and malls create a mixture of shopping opportunities in Adana. Çakmak Street is the traditional shopping street that is located in the old town. There are also several historical bazaars around Büyük Saat and Yağ Camii. Ziyapaşa Boulevard is the street of elegance where pricey brands are located. The streets around Ziyapaşa and the streets of northern Adana, Özal, Demirel and Evren boulevards also host high-end shops. There are four American-style shopping malls in the city; M1 and Carrefour at the west end, Galleria and Optimum Outlet on the banks of Seyhan River.

Adana was named among the 25 European Regions of the Future for 2006/2007 by Foreign Direct Investment Magazine. Chosen alongside Kocaeli for Turkey, Adana scored the highest points for cost effectiveness against Kocaeli's points for infrastructure development, while Adana and Kocaeli tied on points for the categories of human resources and quality of life.

Public, private and not-for profit foundation institutions conduct education in Adana. There are 282 public and 12 private primary schools which pupils attend from grade 1 to 8. From grade 9 to 11, pupils go to one of the 85 public and 26 private high schools. Notable high schools of the city that require examination to enter are; Adana Fen Lisesi, Adana Anadolu Lisesi,Gündoğdu Lisesi, Bilfen Lisesi. There are also 6 public and 6 private schools for pupils with special needs. 9 Community Training Centers serve adult residents to improve their skills. There are two state universities in the city and one university just outside.

Çukurova University is a state university located at the east shores of Seyhan Reservoir. In 2008, with 3 faculties, it is placed among the top 500 universities of the world at a research conducted by Blackwell Publishing, Quacquarelli Symonds and The Times. The university was founded in 1973 with the union of the colleges of Agriculture and Medicine. It has a beautiful campus overlooking to the reservoir with many cultural, social and athletic facilities, currently holding 40,000 students.

Çağ University is a not-for-profit tuition-based university founded in 1997. The university is located just outside of the city, midway to Tarsus. University holds around 2500 students, most of them commuting from Adana, Tarsus and Mersin. Faculty of Management is the most popular school in the university.

Adana University for Science and Technology is a recently founded state university that is planned to have ten faculties, two institutions and a college. It will accommodate 1,700 academic, 470 administrative staff, and it is expected to enroll students by 2012.

Adana is a major health center to a wide region from Mediterrenean to Southeastern Anatolia. There are 4 university hospitals, 8 state hospitals and 7 private hospitals in the city. Balcalı Hospital of the Çukurova University is one of the major hospitals of Turkey.

As being on the major route that is connecting Europe to Middle East, Adana is well served by many forms of transportation. Until the 16th century, Adana was a port city where ships could navigate on Seyhan River to the port just south of Taşköprü.

Direct flights to Düsseldorf, Hannover and Nicosia from Adana Şakirpaşa Airport run by Germania and Cyprus Turkish Airlines. Mersin-Aleppo Train connects Adana and the rest of Çukurova region to Aleppo, the largest metropolitan area of Syria. This train service started in 2008, but did not get popular, as the ride from Adana to Aleppo takes 8 hours. Hatay-based buses take this distance in 3-3.5 hours.

Turkish Airlines, Pegasus Airlines, Atlas Jet Airways, Anadolu Jet Airlines, Onur Air and SunExpress provide daily flights to Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Antalya, Trabzon, Diyarbakır and Van from Adana Şakirpaşa Airport. Turkish State Railways provides trips to most of the cities in Turkey from the Adana Railway Station. The railway line was built during 1910s by the Ottoman-German co-operation and the bridges, tunnels that were built along the Taurus Mountains were the engineering wonders of their time. Numerous bus companies provide service to almost all the cities in Turkey. Although lost its popularity as private airlines introduced inexpensive flights to major cities, bus is still the major form of transportation to and from Adana. Adana has two intercity bus terminals. Bus companies that serve transportation to cities west of Adana, departs from Central Bus Terminal, whereas the buses that serve to cities east of Adana depart from Yüreğir Bus Terminal. There is shuttle service between two terminals.

Adana-Mersin Railway Line runs like a commuter train serving every 20 minutes between Mersin, Tarsus and Adana. With the new railbuses, train trip between Adana and Mersin takes 45 minutes. Train service from Adana to Ceyhan, Osmaniye and Islahiye run three times per day. Regional bus services from Adana to other places in Çukurova are plentiful and carried by bus and minibus co-operatives. Seasonal Bus Services to high plains of Tekir, Bürücek and Kızıldag run in summer, due to high demand of Adana residents escaping the heat.

There is an extensive motorway network (O50-O59) in the region, connecting Adana to as far as Erdemli at the west, Niğde at the north, Şanlıurfa at the east and Iskenderun at the south. Traffic runs smooth at anytime of the day, driving can take as short as 40 minutes to Mersin and 2 hours to Gaziantep.

Local transport in Adana is provided by the Metropolitan Municipality and by dolmuş and bus co-operatives.

Adana Metro is a rail rapid transit system which fully opened to service on May 14, 2010. It is 14 km long and has 13 stations. The system can transport 21,600 passengers per hour one-way, a complete journey taking 21 minutes. The second line of the metro will run from Akıncılar to Çukurova University in the Sarıçam District. It will be 9.5 km long and will have 7 stations. The project is contracted in January 2010 and the construction is expected to start after an agreement is made with the Çukurova University. Adana Metro will then extend to 23.5 km. serving at 20 stations.

Adana Metropolitan Municipality Bus Department serves the city with 229 buses, 8 of them designed specifically for disabled users. Payments are collected by Kentkart Smartcard system; one of the most advanced in Turkey. 6 Bus Co-operatives serve the city with 411 buses. Kentkart and cash are accepted at these buses. 18 Dolmuş Co-operatives, with total of 1,086 minibuses, provide service even to secondary streets. The only form of payment is by cash.

Twin towns Adana is twinned with:

Córdoba, Spain

Beer Sheba, Israel

Shymkent, Kazakhstan

Famagusta, Cyprus

Bremerhaven, Germany

Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Livorno, Italy

Ulan Bator, Mongolia

You can get here from London by taking a plane from London-Heathrow Airport to Ataturk International Airport then to Adana Sakirpasa Airport.