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Yumurtalık | |
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 Map showing Yumurtalık District in Adana Province | |
  Yumurtalık Location in Turkey | |
| Coordinates:36°46′04″N35°47′32″E / 36.76778°N 35.79222°E /36.76778; 35.79222 | |
| Country | Turkey |
| Province | Adana |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Erdinç Altiok (CHP) |
Area | 447 km2 (173 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 20 m (70 ft) |
| Population (2022)[1] | 17,654 |
| • Density | 39/km2 (100/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+3 (TRT) |
| Postal code | 01680 |
| Area code | 0322 |
| Website | www |
Yumurtalık (Turkish:[juˈmuɾtaɫɯk]), formerly calledAegeae,Ayas,Lyeys orLaiazzo,[2] is a municipality anddistrict ofAdana Province,Turkey.[3] Its area is 447 km2,[4] and its population is 17,654 (2022).[1] It is aMediterranean port and resort town at a distance of about 40 km (25 mi) fromAdana city. The resident population of the town Yumurtalık is 5,739 (2022),[5] but in summer, it rises to 30 to 40,000 people since many inhabitants ofAdana have holiday homes here. There are also many daily visitors during the holiday season.
Yumurtalık has a largefree economic zone housing the production units of up to thirty companies presently in operation or in phase of being built. Fields of activities include industries ranging frompetrochemicals,synthetic fibers andsteel industry, and there are also plans for establishing a majorshipyard.[6]
The port has a long history, dating to at least 2000 BC.Hittite pottery of the 17th century BC has been found in the mound ofZeytinbeli Höyük.
ThisCilician port city is located on theGulf of Issus, the modernGulf of İskenderun. It was mentioned byPausanias under the nameAegeae (Ancient Greek:Αἰγέαι,Aigéai),[7] a name that appears also in its coinage.[8] InStrabo's time it was a small city with a port.[9][10]
Tacitus mentions Aegeae in his account of the war betweenArmenia andRome on one side andIberia andParthia on the other.[11] A Greek inscription of the Roman period has been discovered there, and underRoman dominion it was a place of some importance. It was organized as part of theprovince ofCilicia.Apollonius of Tyana (c. 15 –c. 100) made his early studies at Aegeae, when the city was at its cultural height.
It was Christianised at an early date, and while no longer retaining a residential bishop, remains atitular see of theRoman Catholic Church under the name of Aegeae.[12] TheSaints Cosmas and Damian are mentioned in Christian hagiography to have been twin brothers,physicians who practiced their profession in Aegeae, accepting no payment for their services, and eventually sufferingmartyrdom underDiocletian.[13]
In theMiddle Ages, particularly in the 13th century, Aegeae grew to become an important Mediterranean port of theArmenian Kingdom of Cilicia. It was known locally asAyas (Armenian:Այաս),[14] which becameAiazzo or (incorporating the definite article)Laiazzo inVenetian and other European languages. Thefall of Acre[15] and the silting up of the harbour ofTarsus—together with the advantage of Ayas's good roads eastward—led to the city briefly becoming the principal centre of trade between West and East during theHigh Middle Ages.[16] Numerous treaties were negotiated in which the Armenian kings granted various trade privileges to several Italian city-states.[17] Between 1266 and 1322 raids byMamluks and Turkmen in the area caused only minor disruptions in mercantile activities.Marco Polo disembarked here to begin his trip to China in 1271, he reportedly described it as a “city good for good trade,” adding that “all spices, silk, gold and wool from inland were carried to this town.”[18] TheBattle of Laiazzo in 1294, in which the navy of theRepublic of Genoa overcame that of theRepublic of Venice, is thought by some to be that in which Marco Polo later became a prisoner of the Genoese.[19][20] Within the city a quarter and trading post belonging to another of theItalian maritime republics,Pisa, was also established.[14]
The city was increasingly oppressed by theMamluks and fell definitively into their hands in 1347. When European trade routes with the East moved away from the Mediterranean, the city and its harbour lost their importance.[14] Subsequently, it was ruled by theAnatolian beylik ofRamadanids. Yumurtalık (Ottoman Turkish:يمورطالق, meaning "Egglike") fell to theOttoman Empire in the 16th century and then became part of theTurkish Republic in the 20th century. In 1974, actor and film directorYılmaz Güney was arrested at Yumurtalık after a shooting incident that involved the murder of a Yumurtalık judge.
Christianity came early to Aegeae, to judge by the numerous martyrs recorded in theActa Sanctorum and the Greekmenologia, of whom the most famous are SaintsCosmas and Damian, commemorated in theRoman Martyrology under 26 September.[21]
The martyr Zenobius is traditionally considered to be the first bishop of Aegeae. Tarcodimantus, anArian, was bishop at the time of theFirst Council of Nicaea (325). Patrophilus was a correspondent ofBasil the Great; another unnamed bishop of Aegeae was an adversary ofJohn Chrysostom; Eustathius was at theCouncil of Chalcedon (351) and was a correspondent ofTheodoret; Julius was expelled from his see byByzantine EmperorJustin I in 518 because of supportingMonophysitism; Thomas was at a synod inMopsuestia in 550; and Paschalius was at theSecond Council of Constantinople in 553. As indicated in a 6th-centuryNotitiae Episcopatuum, the see itself was asuffragan of themetropolitan see ofAnazarbus, the capital of theRoman province ofCilicia, to which Aegeae belonged.[22][23]
No longer a residential bishopric, presumably faded under Islam, Aegeae is today listed by theCatholic Church as atitular see,[24] the diocese having been nominally restored in the 18th century as atitular bishopric.
It is vacant since decades, having had the following incumbents of the lowest (episcopal) rank (except the first) :
This site has both land and sea castles as well as a polygonal watchtower.
The single curving wall that constitutes the surviving land castle closes the tip of a small peninsula and is surrounded by the old town.[17] The now missing seaward wall, which once followed the shore to enclose the entire ward, was visible in the late 19th century.[25] Three round towers and a polygonal bastion survive as well as several casemates with loopholes (shooting ports) and at least seven embrasured windows. The basic plan of the fortress may have been laid in late antiquity, but extensive rebuilding belongs to the early period of Ottoman occupation, when it served as a minor port for the fleet ofSuleiman the Magnificent.
The sea castle, which is located on an island about 400 meters east of the shore, consists of a tight cluster of five chambers encased in a massive irregular bastion.[17] Attached is a badly damaged circuit wall that surrounds most of the island. The vaulted rooms and enclosures were probably storage areas for merchandise destined for Europe. Although there are the distinct traces of late antique foundations (e.g., dovetail sockets), the peculiar masonry and construction techniques of the sea castle are those typically used duringArmenian Kingdom of Cilicia and may date from the reported re-fortification of the harbour in A.D. 1282.[26]
The watchtower, which is located 1.5 kilometers west of the land castle, was built bySuleiman the Magnificent in the mid 16th century with spolia from the nearby late antique city.[17] The lower two floors are covered with stone vaults. The loopholes in the walls of all three levels are identical in design to those in the nearby Ottoman fortress of Payas.
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The sea is clean and there is still a relaxed feel to this coast, so Yumurtalık is a holiday and weekend retreat for the people ofAdana and of other cities inÇukurova region, who come to stay in seaside holiday flats generally built in compounds. There are also small hotels and guest houses for occasional visitor who can swim during the day and stroll along the beach or into the village in the evenings. The public beaches are not very well kept by the municipality, and they are sometimes covered with litter. But the holiday villages have private beaches which are kept clean and can also be used by outsiders for a small daily entrance fee.
A number of beaches in Yumurtalık are also the nesting places forloggerhead sea turtlecaretta caretta breed. In fact the amount of beach-front holiday property is also part of the problem, even though the sand is clean the turtles won't lay eggs in these busy beaches with neon-lit discothèques blasting out all night. Adequate protection for the turtle's nesting habitat continues to remain a critical question. These endangered species lay eggs only in Yumurtalık, in Akyatan beach in neighboringKarataş district and inİztuzu Beach inDalyan in southwestern Turkey. In fact, the very name Yumurtalık means, among other things, egg nest inTurkish language.
As well as tourism, the fertile agricultural lands that extend behind the coast are also a key factor in local economy and quality tomatoes, watermelons and other fruits and vegetables are extensively produced in Yumurtalık.
Just outside Yumurtalık is theBotaş oil and natural gas terminal. It is the end of theKirkuk–Ceyhan Oil Pipeline running from Northern Iraq, which was opened in the 1970s. Refined oils are also imported through here by sea. Immediately to the southwest, there is the oil terminal for crude oil pipeline from Baku, opened in 2006. Further in the same direction, there is the recently builtİsken Sugözü coal-fired power station.
There are 24neighbourhoods in Yumurtalık District:[27]
Yumurtalık has ahot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen:Csa),[28] with hot, dry and muggy summers, and mild, rainy winters.
| Climate data for Yumurtalık (1991–2020) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 15.2 (59.4) | 16.3 (61.3) | 19.1 (66.4) | 22.5 (72.5) | 25.9 (78.6) | 29.0 (84.2) | 31.3 (88.3) | 32.7 (90.9) | 31.7 (89.1) | 28.5 (83.3) | 22.2 (72.0) | 17.0 (62.6) | 24.3 (75.7) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 10.5 (50.9) | 11.4 (52.5) | 14.1 (57.4) | 17.5 (63.5) | 21.2 (70.2) | 24.7 (76.5) | 27.5 (81.5) | 28.5 (83.3) | 26.3 (79.3) | 22.7 (72.9) | 16.8 (62.2) | 12.3 (54.1) | 19.5 (67.1) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 7.0 (44.6) | 7.4 (45.3) | 9.9 (49.8) | 13.1 (55.6) | 16.7 (62.1) | 20.4 (68.7) | 23.7 (74.7) | 24.4 (75.9) | 21.8 (71.2) | 18.1 (64.6) | 12.6 (54.7) | 8.8 (47.8) | 15.4 (59.7) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 128.8 (5.07) | 106.5 (4.19) | 81.5 (3.21) | 57.0 (2.24) | 53.0 (2.09) | 23.7 (0.93) | 8.0 (0.31) | 4.3 (0.17) | 28.9 (1.14) | 52.4 (2.06) | 104.7 (4.12) | 143.8 (5.66) | 792.4 (31.20) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 8.5 | 8.3 | 7.4 | 5.8 | 4.7 | 2.4 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 3.6 | 4.7 | 6.0 | 9.0 | 63.3 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 61.2 | 61.8 | 64.7 | 69.1 | 71.7 | 73.2 | 74.6 | 72.8 | 66.7 | 59.3 | 55.8 | 61.2 | 66.1 |
| Source:NOAA[29] | |||||||||||||
There are also picnic areas, a beach and birdwatching facilities in the lagoon.
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Media related toYumurtalık at Wikimedia CommonsYumurtalık inAdana Province ofTurkey | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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