Adana,city, south-centralTurkey. It is situated in the plain ofCilicia, on the Seyhan River (the ancient Sarus River). An agricultural and industrial centre and the country’s fourth largest city, it probably overlies aHittite settlement that dates from approximately 1400bce, and its history has been profoundly influenced by its location at the foot of theTaurus Mountain passes leading to the Syrian plains.

Conquered byAlexander the Great in 335–334bce, it came under the rule of theʿAbbāsid Arabs at the end of the 7th centuryce and changed hands intermittently in the next 600 years until the establishment of the TurkmenRamazan dynasty in 1378. The Ramazan rulers retained control of local administration even after Adana was conquered by theOttoman sultanSelim I in 1516. In 1608Adana was reconstituted as aprovince under direct Ottoman administration. Adana became a provincial capital in 1867. One of the earlierextant monuments in the area is a stone bridge 220 yards (200 metres) long spanning the Seyhan River, dating from the time of theByzantine emperorJustinian I and restored by several Arab rulers of the area in the 8th and 9th centuries. On the right bank of the river is a ruined fortress built by the future ʿAbbāsid caliphHārūn al-Rashīd in 782. The principal mosque, the Ulu Cami, dates from 1542.

Adana’s prosperity has long come from the fertile valleys behind it and from its position as a bridgehead on the Anatolian-Arabian trade routes. It is a centre of the Turkish cotton industry and manufactures textiles, cement, agricultural machinery, and vegetable oils. Adana lies on the rail line betweenIstanbul andBaghdad and is connected by a branchline to the Mediterranean port ofMersin, 32 miles (51 km) southwest, through which its products are shipped. Çukurova University was established at Adana in 1973. Adana is the centre of an agricultural region producing cotton, rice, sesame, oats, and citrus fruits. Pop. (2005) 1,245,000; (2013 est.) 1,628,725.

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