Anavarza Antik Kenti

Anavarza is an ancient Cilician city about 28 kilometres south of Kozan district, within the boundaries of today's Dilekkaya settlement. The city was founded about 8 kilometres north of the point where the Sumbas Stream joins the Ceyhan River, at the foot of a rocky mountain that rises like an island from the middle of the flat plain. This rock mass, about 200 metres high, is one of the most striking landforms of the Çukurova plain. Known in ancient sources by names such as Anazarbos and Anazarba, the city's name, according to a view reported in Turkish Wikipedia, may derive from an Old Persian word meaning "invincible". Very little is known about the city's history before Rome. According to Turkish Wikipedia, after Emperor Augustus visited the city in 19 BC, the settlement began to be called "Caesarea near Anazarbus". For its first two centuries the city stayed in the shadow of Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia. In 194 its support for Septimius Severus in his struggle for the throne opened a brilliant period for the city, and in 204-205 Anavarza received the title of metropolis. According to the municipality's guide, by the middle of the 3rd century the city had also won the title of neokoros three times, that is, the title of a city that kept a temple of the imperial cult. Attacked by the Sasanian ruler Shapur in 260, the city became the capital of the province of Cilicia Secunda, established in 408. Natural disasters changed the city's fate several times. After the great earthquake of 525 or 526, Emperor Justinian had the city repaired and gave it the name Justinianopolis, but the old name stuck. The second earthquake of 561 and the plague that followed shook the city again. According to English Wikipedia, the city was rebuilt by Harun al-Rashid in 796, fortified in the mid 10th century by the Hamdanid ruler Sayf al-Dawla, and destroyed in 962 by the Byzantine army. At the beginning of the 12th century Toros I of the Rubenid dynasty made it his centre, and the castle became, together with Sis, one of the dynasty's two main residences. The city was destroyed by Mamluk armies in 1374; from the 16th century the Kozanoğulları held sway in the region. The world famous physician and pharmacologist Dioscorides is accepted as a native of Anavarza; his work "De Materia Medica" was read for centuries as one of the basic textbooks of medical education. According to the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, the archaeological site covers an area of 1,143 decares with its castle, mosaics, baths, triumphal arch, aqueducts, rock tombs, stadium and ancient theatre. The city was founded at the foot of the castle in the 1st century and reached its most magnificent period in the 3rd century. Of its four great gates, the only one still standing today is the Ala Kapı; built as a triumphal arch, this monument with three passages is the largest known triumphal arch in the region. In work completed in 2015, 500 blocks, most of them carved, that had fallen from the triumphal arch in earthquakes were drawn and documented one by one and moved to a stone park. In the same work, a section of about 250 metres of the 34-metre-wide main street was excavated and exposed. English Wikipedia reports that this street is the first known double-lane colonnaded street of the ancient world. Most of the aqueducts that stretched across the plain are thought to have collapsed in the earthquake of 1945; today only scattered sections still stand. The tombs on the rock slope and the necropolis south of the walls are also among the areas to explore. The Tethys and fish mosaics found at the site are now displayed in the mosaic hall of Adana Museum. Anavarza Castle stands on top of the rocky mountain, and Ministry sources present it as the largest castle in Çukurova. In the castle you can see traces ranging from repairs of the time of Harun al-Rashid to the Middle Ages, along with cisterns, vaulted passages, towers and niches. Turkish Wikipedia notes that the lower city was enclosed by a wall about 1,500 metres long with 20 towers. Inside the castle there are also remains of medieval religious buildings. The writer Yaşar Kemal's novel "İnce Memed" has a section set in Anavarza, and his novel "Yılanı Öldürseler" takes place among the rocks of Anavarza. The site is an open area and there is little shade on the plain; do not go without a hat, water and comfortable shoes. Early morning is the best time, both for the cool and for the light on the western face of the rock. A sensible order is to start at the Ala Kapı, walk along the main street, and then move on to the rock tombs and the foot of the castle. The path up to the castle is steep and rocky; attempt the climb only if you are in good condition and the weather is dry. Spring, when the plain is green, and autumn, when the summer heat breaks, are good times to visit. According to the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, the site can be reached by buses going to Kozan; driving your own car as far as Dilekkaya is more flexible. Check current visiting conditions with the provincial directorate of culture and tourism.