Taşköprü

Taşköprü is the Roman bridge that joins the two banks of the Seyhan River in the centre of Adana, and it is regarded as the best known symbol of the city. Its western end lies in Seyhan district, while its eastern end reaches Yüreğir district on the Karşıyaka side. The bridge is thought to have been built most probably in the first half of the 2nd century AD. In antiquity this crossing was an important link on the trade route running from the Mediterranean coast into inner Anatolia and on to Persia. The sources do not agree on a single founder for the bridge. The traveller Victor Langlois, who came to Adana in 1852 and 1853, attributed the structure to Emperor Hadrian and reported that an inscription bearing his name had stood on the bridge until about twenty years before his visit. The Adana Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, relying on an inscription now in the Adana Museum, credits an architect named Auxentios and puts the bridge's age at about 1700 years. English Wikipedia notes that a full reading of this Greek inscription may link it to an aqueduct feeding water wheels rather than to the bridge. The safest statement is therefore that the bridge was founded in the Roman period and reworked many times in the centuries that followed. The Byzantine historian Procopius writes that Emperor Justinian I diverted the river into a temporary bed in the 6th century and had the piers worn down by the water rebuilt. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam likewise states that under Justinian the bridge was probably rebuilt on the same spot with twenty one arches. According to the Culture Portal, the bridge was linked to Adana Castle with additions under the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid and was repaired under his son al-Mamun. In the Ottoman period it is recorded as having been maintained under Ahmed III, Kel Hasan Pasha and the Adana governor Ziya Pasha, and the inscriptions of these last repairs survive. The dimensions of the bridge are given with small differences in the sources. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam and Wikipedia give the length as 310 metres, the provincial directorate says 319 metres, and the Culture Portal says about 300 metres. Its width including the pavements is about 11.4 metres, and its height approaches 13 metres. The bridge originally had twenty one arches, but some of the arches at the ends were buried when the riverbanks were regulated, so fourteen arches are visible today. According to the Culture Portal, the middle of the bridge is about 2.5 metres higher than its two ends, and this slight hump is easy to notice when you look at the arches from the opposite bank. Tuff, marble and stones reused from older buildings were used in its construction. The piers of the eastern section in particular carry the clearest traces of the original building. The upstream faces of the piers show stepped cutwaters and footings, a detail typical of Roman bridges. The present triangular cutwaters are thought to have been renewed during one of the Ottoman repairs. A lion relief sits on the north face of the eleventh arch, and star and crescent motifs catch the eye at various points on the bridge. The cobbled paving of the bridge has found its way into folk songs, and it is reported to have been laid under Governor Süleyman Bahri Pasha, who served between 1899 and 1908. When cotton farming spread across Çukurova in the mid 19th century, seasonal workers looking for field work gathered on the bridge once a week during the spring months. According to the sources the crowd grew so large that the people of Adana found it hard to cross the river on those days. The bridge underwent a thorough restoration between 2006 and 2007 and was then closed to motor traffic. Since then it has been open only to pedestrians and occasionally hosts cultural events. The most rewarding way to walk it is to start from the riverside path on the Seyhan bank, cross the bridge to the eastern bank and return the same way. To see the reflection of the arches in the water, stop on the riverside promenades of either bank rather than on the bridge itself. At sunset, when the sun drops behind the western bank, the stones take on a warm colour and the best hours for photography begin. The bridge is easy to reach from the city centre by public transport or on foot, and the Büyük Saat clock tower and Ramazanoğlu Konağı are within walking distance. Merkez Park begins close to the Seyhan end of the bridge, and the green strip along the river offers a good continuation for anyone who wants a longer walk. Because the Adana heat can be oppressive at midday in summer, it is more comfortable to come early in the morning or in the late afternoon.