Cilician Armenia: Antakya to Adana

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6 Oct, Yumartalik to Antakya
On a bright morning we drove east through gently rolling countryside on backroads until all of a sudden we rounded a bend and joined some brand new and very empty toll motorway. This looked like it must be associated with the oil terminals that soon came into view. The coastline from just east of Yumartalik until we left it at Iskenderun - at least an hour's drive - was busy with modern industrial plants and container ships and tankers either coming or going. The motorway is slightly elevated between the coastal strip and the mountains so we had a view of the sea all the way.

Just south of Iskenderun the motorway finishes and the road turns inland and upwards. From previous reading I had thought this was going to be an awful stretch but it turned out to be decent dual carriageway that climbed high up through Belen before dropping down to the eastern side of the mountains. After a few kilometres we turned back into the hills, past people selling mounds of onions, to follow the occasional signposts to Baghras castle.

We parked where we thought we would be out of reach of rockfalls from the castle and gingerly followed the narrow paths in the debris to climb up the the first level. This still has intact galleries and vaulted rooms where you can explore - we did this one at a time in case anything went wrong. Above this there are the remains of several levels of rooms with the largest remains being that of the great hall and the chapel. I couldn't help thinking that a few months effort by "Turkish Heritage" could help clear/tidy a lot of the rubble, make safe the more vulnerable parts and make this into an even better place to visit, especially combined with the attractions of Antioch/Antakya - Krak des Chevaliers in Syria isn't that far south of here and is a major tourist destination. Enough grumpiness.

We carried onto Antakya, ancient Antioch. After negotiating the traffic, the new road layouts and going round the block a couple of times we managed to find a city centre hotel. This wasn't quite where LP have it on their map. First impressions of the city when we started wandering were good as the main streets all seem to be tree lined and well maintained. We walked down the road to see the really good Archaeology Museum - expanded from the former Mosiac Museum. The main attraction was the mosaics but there were items from all periods of history. The shock of the day was walking into a restaurant for dinner and finding ourselves next to an Australian Tour Group, the first foreigner tourists we had seen. The food was a bit different here and felt like a cross between Turkish and Syrian/Arabic.

7 Oct, Antakya
The next morning we walked out north of the city centre to St Peter's Cave Church. In all honesty there is not a lot to see here but it is an almost compulsory sight to come to in Antakya as a very early Christian site where Peter and Paul may have preached. After the German tour group left in their megabus we had the place to ourselves.

We walked back to the city centre into Antakya's bazaar, a warren of hundreds of small shops and several small mosques. As far as we could tell these shops were all selling things that the locals wanted to buy - shoes, underwear etc rather than trying to sell tourist tat. We bought some hazelnuts and soap and got my watchstrap replaced. Leaving the bazaar we had a meander through the old town getting enjoyably mildly lost in the alleyways and small lanes. Some very smart and some very decrepit buildings. Cutting down to the river we crossed a pedestrian bridge into the long riverside park. A nice spot to wander and watch the world go by.

In the evening we went to a (the?) bar in the old town where you could have anything you wanted, as long as you wanted Efes beer. Found ourselves a restaurant that was not in the guidebooks but turned out to be very nice with an array of different kebabs to choose from and a waiter who could explain to us the difference between an "Urfa kebap" and a "Halep kebap". There was even a wine list. Whilst we ate a band arrived and began to set up - keyboards and a singer who looked like he had decided that Freddie Mercury c 1977 was a fashion icon. They were there for a party of 28 people coming from Lebanon. Sadly the party had not arrived by the time we had finished dinner so we missed Radio Ga Ga in arabic.

8 Oct, return to Adana
Woke up in the night to thunder. The morning was grey and overcast which was a bit of a surprise. We were driving back to Adana via a couple of castles today. Firstly we went in the pouring rain to Koz/Cursat castle south of Antakya towards Syria. This castle took a bit of finding after being signposted from the main road, we eventually reached it through a combination of good guesswork and helpful advice in German, Turkish and sign language from locals. Susan sensibly stayed in the car whilst I donned my waterproof and braved the elements. The two remaining towers are massively built though everything else is very ruinous. The main court of the castle has a number of cisterns and other underground structures partly visible but today was not the day for exploring these.

We went back through Antakya and over the hills back to the motorway. En route we stopped off at Toprak Kale to see this black stone castle on its ancient mound. The ruins are quite large but the whole of the central area is very overgrown with trees and waist high grass and probably open cisterns. The undercrofts along one side are still accessible, if dark, we did eventually manage to relate what was on the ground to my plan. The car park here was quite large and as we went back to our car we passed several others with courting couples. Evidently a scenic spot for a lunchtime assignation!

The skies really opened as we drove back to Adana along tarmac streams. Fortunately the weather improved as we approached Adana. After dropping the car at the airport we had another barn storming taxi ride to a hotel that the driver had not heard of....but we got there and it turned to be great. In a quiet side street we had a huge room (2 x double beds, arm chairs and acres of space) with lovely bathroom and double glazing. For our final evening we went to a local bar and then to one of the restaurants near the train station. Huge Adana kebabs and all the salad trimmings whilst a group of 30 or so students celebrated something with a three piece traditional band playing a mixture of dirges and dance tunes. Good fun.

9 October: Adana & going home
We spent the morning seeing the sights on foot, we meandered our way through to the riverside park north of the disneyesque Sabanci Merkez mosque. This is huge and very impressive inside and out. We sat on the carpet inside talking with a local man who was practising his English with us. We also visited the provincial museum where there are a few nice pieces and walked down to see the Roman bridge - still in use after nearly 2,000 years.

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time for our flight only to find it cancelled and we were moved to the next flight and hour later. This potentially made our transfer time in Istanbul short and this got worse when this flight left 40 m late. But all was well in the end and we and the bags made it to London at about 10.30pm.

After thoughts:
A really good short trip with nice places to stay, good food, great things to see and friendly people. Already thinking about when to return to try and see some more of the many castles we didn't see...

ps How are so many petrol stations still in business in Turkey, sometimes there are half a dozen within a few hundred metres. Perhaps because fuel is even more expensive than the UK.

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Photos

Baghras Castle
southern side seen from approach road

Baghras
in the courtyard - made me think of films of the blitz with rubble everywhere

Antakya - Dionysus mosaic
in the really good museum

Cursat Castle
enormous building blocks used here

Toprakkale
black castle under leaden sky

Adana - Sabanci Merkez Mosque
The biggest in Turkey we were assured