Things to do in Adana

Landmark · Seyhan

A Roman stone bridge of sixteen surviving arches that carried traffic across the Seyhan for roughly eighteen centuries, now pedestrianised, with river parks running away from both ends.

Local tip: Walk it at dusk rather than in daylight — the whole city comes down to the river when the heat breaks, and the bridge is where they gather. The Sabancı mosque is floodlit just upstream from it.

Culture · Seyhan, on the river

A vast 1998 mosque on the Seyhan bank with six minarets and a dome modelled on Selimiye, built with Sabancı money — the family whose fortune began in Adana's cotton.

Local tip: Go inside outside prayer times; the interior is far lighter and less austere than the exterior suggests. Pair it with the Taşköprü right beside it and the Merkez Park along the water.

Food · Seyhan (old centre)

The coppersmiths' bazaar and the grid of streets around it, where the kebab houses that defined the dish sit alongside ciğerci breakfast counters and şalgam bars.

Local tip: Eat liver at eight in the morning like everyone else, then come back for kebab at lunch. Ask for the şalgam 'acılı' and drink it with the meat rather than after — that is the whole point of it.

Nature · North of the city

The reservoir behind the 1956 Seyhan dam, with a long waterside road, rowing clubs, cafés and the only reliable breeze within reach of the city in August.

Local tip: This is where Adana goes in the evening in summer. Drive or take a taxi up the lakeside road after sunset — it is several degrees cooler than the centre and the fish restaurants are on the water.

Culture · Yüreğir, ~25 km east

A Roman and early Byzantine town on the Ceyhan river with a fourth-century mosaic floor of Noah's Ark preserved in situ under a modern museum shell, and a Roman bridge still standing beside it.

Local tip: Almost nobody goes, which is the point. Combine it with Yılankale, the crusader castle on the crag a few kilometres further east, for an afternoon that costs almost nothing.

Landmark · Karaisalı, ~60 km north

A 172-metre German-built stone viaduct of 1912 spanning a gorge 98 metres up, on the Baghdad Railway line climbing into the Taurus — the bridge from the opening of Skyfall.

Local tip: Go on the actual train from Adana rather than driving: the regional service up to Karaisalı crosses it, and the climb through the Cilician Gates is one of the great railway rides in the country. Then get out and walk back onto the bridge.