Büyük Saat Kulesi

Büyük Saat is the historic clock tower rising on Ali Münif Avenue in the old market district of Adana. Locals simply call it Büyüksaat, and together with Taşköprü it counts as one of the two best known symbols of Adana. The tower is 32 metres high, and the sources present it as the tallest clock tower in Turkey. According to the Culture Portal it was the tallest of the clock towers in Ottoman cities when it was built, with the Dolmabahçe Clock Tower in Istanbul in second place. The construction date of the tower is told in two different ways in the sources. Ministry of Culture and Tourism sources state that construction began in 1881 under Governor Ziya Pasha and was completed in 1882 under Governor Abidin Pasha. English Wikipedia, however, places the start in 1879 and attributes the work to the mayor Kirkor Bezdikyan. The Culture Inventory records that the tower was built by Krikor Ağa Bızdikyan and Kaspar Ağa Avakyan, and that Mayor Hacı Yunus also made an important contribution to the work. The point on which the sources agree is that the tower was finished in 1882 under Abidin Pasha. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam also lists the Clock Tower as a building erected in 1882 by the Adana governor Abidin Pasha. The tower rises as a square prism and has a clock face on each of its four sides. Its outer face is of cut stone, while the shaft is built of small stone bricks that are laborious to lay. Its foundation is said to go 35 metres deep, although the sources pass this on as hearsay. Thanks to its solid construction the tower remained standing after the 1998 Adana earthquake. It was first known as the Saathane, and over time it took the name Büyük Saat to distinguish it from the Küçüksaat, a smaller tower shaped like a money box on a busy square of the city. The clock itself has a story of its own. According to the clockmaker who maintains it, the first mechanism was damaged during the years of the War of Independence and was replaced in 1925 by a new mechanism brought from Germany. Because the clock has a striking mechanism, it needs to be adjusted and serviced every week. In its early years a powerful bell rang on every hour and could be heard across most of the city, and daily business was arranged by its sound. The bell is reported to carry a French inscription naming a firm, with Adana in its text. English Wikipedia also records that there were once rumours that the water springing from the tower's foundations had healing powers. The bell chamber is reached by a staircase of more than a hundred steps, but the inside of the tower is not regularly open to visitors. The tower is seen as a symbol of the modernisation of Adana, which grew on the cotton trade in the last quarter of the 19th century. The old market fabric around it still conveys the commercial energy of that period. The nearby Kazancılar Çarşısı and the shops lining Ali Münif Avenue are streets where the city's traditional craft and trading life carries on. A restoration and street improvement project that began in 2013 and ended in 2014 gave the shop fronts along the avenue a single unified design. Lighting in the evenings makes the tower visible from afar even after dark. The best views of the tower are from the two ends of the avenue and from the small square at its foot. To fit the whole shaft into a single frame, step back a few paces and shoot upwards; afternoon light turns the stone surface a warm yellow. The tower is a natural meeting point for a walking route, because Ramazanoğlu Konağı, Taşköprü, the Adana Cinema Museum and the Atatürk House Museum can all be reached from here on foot. The area around the tower is also where the city's old kebab makers and confectioners are gathered, so it is easy to add a break to the walk. The tower can be reached from the city centre by shared minibus, private and municipal buses, and the metro. Because the surroundings are a market district with heavy traffic, public transport or walking is more comfortable than arriving by car. The tower can be seen from outside at any hour; access to the bell chamber is possible only with special permission, so check the current situation with the relevant institutions.