Misis Köprüsü ve Mopsuestia

Misis Bridge is a stone bridge that crosses the Ceyhan River with nine arches where the river runs across the Adana plain, beside the settlement of Misis, officially called Yakapınar today. The Adana Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism gives the distance from the city centre as 27 kilometres. The bridge stands at the river crossing of an ancient city known as Mopsuestia, and understanding the structure begins with that city. Ancient sources write the name as Mopsuestia, Byzantine and Crusader sources as Mamistra and Arabic sources as Massisa; in Turkish it became Misis, and after 1960 it was officially renamed Yakapınar. The founding of the city is attributed to the legendary seer Mopsos, and the name is read as "the hearth of Mopsos". The settlement's past does not stop there. According to the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, the history of Misis begins with a mound that probably goes back to the Neolithic period; the city later saw Hittite, Assyrian, Macedonian and Seleucid rule and became an important centre in Roman and Byzantine times. Under the Seleucids the city was for a while called Seleucia on the Pyramus, and under Roman emperors it was also known by names such as Hadriana and Decia. Pyramos is the ancient name of the Ceyhan River, and it is reported that before alluvium blocked the river mouth, ships coming from the sea could sail up as far as Misis. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam explains that Misis, a frontier city between Byzantine and Arab armies throughout the Middle Ages, changed hands many times and became definitively Ottoman after 1517. The construction date of the bridge is debated in the sources. Some researchers link it to the reign of Emperor Valerian in the 3rd century, while the common view attributes it to Constantius II in the 4th century; another view dates it even earlier, to the reign of Vespasian in the 1st century. The guide published by Adana Metropolitan Municipality also states that the bridge was built in the 4th century. It is reported to have been repaired under Emperor Justinian in the 6th century, and again in 743 and 840 under Arab rule. In the Ottoman period its central arch collapsed in 1736 and made it unusable; it was repaired in 1766, and the inscription recording this repair says it was rebuilt by İbrahim Ağa on the order of Mustafa III. When Evliya Çelebi passed through in 1671, he also wrote that the inn on the far bank had been repaired by Köprülü Mehmed Pasha. The structure you see today is built of neatly cut stone, 132.80 metres long and 6.45 metres wide. It has nine pointed arches, and from the central arch with its 11-metre span four arches on each side grow gradually smaller towards the banks. The bridge was restored again in 1998 and is still used between the two sides of the settlement. The best-known local story is that the paper on which Lokman Hekim wrote the recipe for the elixir of immortality flew out of his hand on this very bridge. Begin your visit on the riverbank and look at the arches first from below, from the water upwards. Stepping back a little along the bank is enough to notice how much larger the central arch is than those at the sides, and to see the pointed form of the arches side by side. Then walk across the bridge to see how this crossing links the two banks within the plain; the Misis hills rise to the north. The old core of the city spreads around this hill and the riverbank. Among the surviving works, the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism lists the walls on the acropolis, the remains of the city, the Havraniye Caravanserai built in 1542 and a small cubic mosque with a single dome dated 1648. The municipal guide notes that the restoration of the Misis caravanserai has been completed, while excavations in the ancient city and the repair of other structures continue. A word of caution is needed as well. A museum building was opened on site for the mosaics uncovered at Misis in 1959, but according to the Kültür Envanteri record this museum was later closed. The best-known mosaic of Misis, the Flood Mosaic found in 1956 and described as the first mosaic rescued in Adana, is now displayed in the mosaic hall of the Adana Museum Complex. If you want to see the mosaics, add the museum in the city centre to your plan rather than travelling to the closed building in Misis. Misis is reached by the main road from the city centre towards Ceyhan; the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism notes that any vehicle heading to Ceyhan will bring you here. The bridge is in the open air and can be seen in every season, but in summer there is little shade on the bank at midday. For light, the morning and late afternoon hours bring out the texture of the stone in the arches best. If you continue along the Ceyhan River, the road leads you north-east to Sirkeli Höyük and Yılankale, and from there south-east to the Kurtkulağı Caravanserai.