Adana

Adana is a major city in southern Turkey. The city is situated on the Seyhan river, 35 km (22 mi) inland from the Mediterranean Sea, in south-central Anatolia. It is the administrative seat of the Adana Province and has a population of 1.7 million, making it the fifth most populous city in Turkey. Adana-Mersin polycentric metropolitan area, with a population of 3 million, stretches over 70 km (43 mi) east-west and 25 km (16 mi) north-south; encompassing the cities of Mersin, Tarsus and Adana.

Adana lies in the heart of Çukurova, a geo-cultural region alternatively known as Cilicia. Home to six million people, Çukurova is one of the largest population concentrations in Turkey, as well as the most agriculturally productive area, owing to its large stretch of flat, fertile land. Region covers the provinces of Mersin, Adana, Osmaniye, and Hatay.

Etymology

According to numerous sources, the name Adana is derived from the Hittite URUAdaniya of Kizzuwatna, while others assert that it is related to the legendary character Danaus, or to the Danaoi, a mythological Greek tribe who came from Egypt and established themselves in the Greek city Argos. The earlier Egyptian texts for a country Danaja are inscriptions from Thutmosis II (1437 BC) and Amenophis III (1390–1352 BC). After the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization (1200 BC) some refugees from the Aegean area went to the coast of Cilicia. The inhabitants Dananayim or Danuna are identified as one group of the Sea Peoples who attacked Egypt in 1191 BC during the reign of Ramesses III. Denyen are identified as inhabitants of the city Adana. It is also possible that the name is connected with the PIE da-nu (river) Da-na-vo (people living by the river), Scythian nomad people, water demons in Rigveda (Danavas).

In Hellenistic times, it was known as Antiochia in Cilicia (Ἀντιόχεια τῆς Κιλικίας) or Antiochia ad Sarum (Ἀντιόχεια ἡ πρὸς Σάρον; "Antiochia on the Sarus"). The editors of The Helsinki Atlas tentatively identify Adana as Quwê (as contained in cuneiform tablets), the Neo-Assyrian capital of Quwê province. The name also appears as Coa, and may be the place referred to in the Bible, where King Solomon obtained horses. (I Kings 10:28; II Chron. 1:16). The Armenian name of the city is Ատանա Atana or Ադանա Adana.

According to an ancient Greco-Roman legend, the name has its origins in Adanus and Sarus, the two sons of Uranus, who came to a place near the Seyhan (Sarus) River, where they built Adana. An older legend relates the city's name to Adad (also known as Tesup or Ishkur), the Thunder God in the Akkadian, Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian and Hittite mythologies, who was believed to live in the nearby forest, and whose name was given to the region. The Hittites' names and writings have been found in the area, evidencing this possibility. The theory goes that since the Thunder God brought so much rain and this rain in turn brought such great abundance in this particular region, this god was loved and respected by its inhabitants and, in his honor, the region was called the "Uru Adaniyya"; in other words "the Region of Ada".

Adana's name has had many different versions over the centuries: Adanos, Ta Adana, Uru Adaniya, Erdene, Edene, Ezene, Batana, Atana, Azana, Addane.

Geography

Adana is located at the northeastern edge of the Mediterranean, where it serves as the gateway to the Çukurova plain, which has historically been known in the West as the Cilicia plain. This large stretch of flat, fertile land lies southeast of the Taurus Mountains.

From Adana, crossing the Çukurova westwards, the road from Tarsus enters the foothills of the Taurus Mountains. The temperature decreases with every foot of ascent, as the road reaches an altitude of nearly 4,000 feet (1,200 m). It goes through the famous Cilician Gates, the rocky pass through which armies have coursed since the dawn of history, and continues to the Anatolian plain.

The north of the city is surrounded by the Seyhan reservoir and HEP, which was completed in 1956. The dam was constructed for hydroelectric power (HEP) and to irrigate the lower Çukurova plain. Two irrigation channels in the city flow to the plain, passing through the city center from east to west. There is another canal for irrigating the Yüreğir plain to the southeast of the city.

The 37th parallel north passes through the city.

History

The history of the Tepebağ tumulus in the middle of Adana dates to the Neolithic Period, 6000 B.C., and the time of the first human settlements. It is considered to be the oldest city of the Çukurova region. A place called Adana is mentioned by name in a Sumerian epic, the Epic of Gilgamesh, but the geography of this work is too imprecise to identify its location.

Classical era

According to the Hittite inscription of Kava, found in Hattusa (Boğazkale), Kizzuwatna was the first kingdom that ruled Adana, under the protection of the Hittites by 1335 BC. At that time, the name of the city was Uru Adaniyya, and the inhabitants were called Danuna. Beginning with the collapse of the Hittite Empire, c. 1191–1189 BC, invasions from the west caused a number of small kingdoms to take control of the plain, as follows: Quwê Assyrians, 9th century BC; Persians, 6th century BC; Alexander the Great in 333 BC; Seleucids; the pirates of Cilicia; Roman statesman Pompey the Great; and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (Cilician Kingdom).

The history of Adana is intrinsically linked to the history of Tarsus; they often seem to be the same city, moving as the neighboring Seyhan River changed its position. Their respective names also changed over the course of the centuries. Adana was of relatively minor importance during the Roman's influential period, while nearby Tarsus was the metropolis of the area. During the era of Pompey, the city was used as a prison for the pirates of Cilicia. For several centuries thereafter, it was a waystation on a Roman military road leading to the East. After the permanent split of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, the area became a part of the Byzantine Empire, and was probably developed during the time of Julian the Apostate. With the construction of large bridges, roads, government buildings, irrigation and plantation, Adana and Cilicia became the most developed and important trade centers of the region. Ayas (today Yumurtalık), and Kozan (formerly Sis) were the other major urban and administrative centers in the area, especially during the period of the Cilicians.

Byzantine era

Adana was included in the Roman province of Cilicia Prima, whose capital was Tarsus. It became a Christian bishopric, a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Tarsus, but was raised to the rank of autocephalous archdiocese after 680, the year in which its bishop appeared as a simple bishop at the Third Council of Constantinople, but before its listing in a 10th century Notitiae Episcopatuum as an archdiocese.

Its bishop Paulinus participated in the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Piso was among the Arianism-inclined bishops at the Council of Sardica (344) who withdrew and set up their own council at Philippopolis; he later returned to orthodoxy and signed the profession of Nicene faith at a synod in Antioch in 363. Cyriacus was at the First Council of Constantinople in 381. Anatolius is mentioned in a letter of Saint John Chrysostom. Cyrillus was at the Council of Ephesus in 431 and at a synod in Tarsus in 434. Philippus took part in the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and was a signatory of the joint letter of the bishops of Cilicia Prima to Byzantine Emperor Leo I the Thracian in 458 protesting at the murder of Proterius of Alexandria. Ioannes participated in the Third Council of Constantinople in 680. No longer a residential bishopric, Adana is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.

Middle Ages

In the mid-7th century, the city was captured by the Arabs. According to an Arab historian of that era, the name of the city was derived from Ezene, the prophet Yazene's grandson.

The Byzantines recaptured Adana in 964. After the victory of Alp Arslan at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Seljuq Turks overran much of the Byzantine Empire. They had reached and captured Adana sometime before 1071 and continued to hold the place until Tancred, a leader of the First Crusade, captured the city in 1097.

In 1132, it was captured by the forces of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, under its king, Leo I. It was taken by Byzantine forces in 1137, but the Armenians regained it around 1170. In 1268, there was a terrible earthquake which destroyed much of the city. Adana was rebuilt and remained a part of the Kingdom of Cilician Armenia until 1359, when the city was ceded by Constantine III to the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt in return for obtaining a peace treaty. The Mamluks' capture of the city allowed many Turkish families to settle in it. The Ramadanids family, one of the Oghuz families brought by the Mamluks, ruled Adana until the Ottomans captured the city. The Ramadanid family still remains as a prominent family to this day, as Onur family after the surname reform.

Modern era

From the early modern period to the modern era (1517–1918), the Ottoman Empire ruled the area.

In the 1830s, in order to secure Egypt's independence from the Ottoman Empire, the army of Muhammad Ali Pasha, the vali of Ottoman Egypt and Sudan, invaded Syria on two occasions, and reached the Adana plain. The soldiers of Muhammad Ali Pasha destroyed Adana Castle and the Walls. The subsequent peace treaty secured Egypt's independence, but (at the insistence of Great Britain, Austria, Russia and Prussia) required the evacuation of all Egyptian forces from Syria, and its return to Ottoman sovereignty. In the aftermath, Adana was established as a province in its own right.

The Adana massacre occurred in the Ottoman Vilayet of Adana in April 1909. A religious-ethnic clash in the province amid governmental upheaval led to a series of anti-Armenian pogroms throughout the region. Despite official denial, which placed the blame squarely on the Armenians and the death count at a mere 1500, the massacres in the entire province of Adana resulted in the deaths of roughly 25,000 Armenians. The massacre left around 3500 Armenian children homeless, some being placed in a newly-built orphanage, Dârüleytâm. During World War I in 1915, Ottoman troops deported the city's Armenian population (approx. 20,000) to Syria.

After World War I, the Ottoman government surrendered control of the city to French troops, and the four battalions of the French Armenian Legion were sent to occupy Adana and oversee the repatriation of Armenian refugees. The French forces were, however, spread too thinly in the region and, as they came under withering attacks by Muslim elements both opposed and loyal to Mustafa Kemal Pasha, eventually reversed their policies in the region. The Armenian Legion was gradually disbanded, the repatriation was halted, and the French ultimately abandoned all pretensions to Cilicia, which they had originally hoped to attach to their mandate over Syria. On 20 October 1921, the Treaty of Ankara was signed between France and the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Based on the terms of the agreement, France recognized the end of the Cilicia War, and French troops together with the remaining Armenian volunteers withdrew from the city on 5 January 1922.

On 30 January 1943, British prime minister Winston Churchill secretly met with Turkish president İsmet İnönü inside a train wagon at Yenice Station, 23 kilometres (14 miles) outside of Adana (the so-called Adana Meeting or Adana Conference). Churchill wanted Turkey to join the Second World War on the side of the Allies; the details of which were later discussed at the Second Cairo Conference in December 1943, which was attended by İnönü, Churchill and Roosevelt.

The city was hit by a 6.2 magnitude earthquake (1998 Adana–Ceyhan earthquake) on 27 June 1998. The disaster killed 145 and left 1500 people wounded and many thousand homeless in the city. The total economic loss was estimated at about US$1 billion.

Chronology

Luvi Kingdom (1900 BC), Hittite Empire (1900–1200 BC), Assyrian Empire (713–663 BC), Persian Empire (550–333 BC), Hellenistic (333–323 BC), Seleucid Empire (312–133 BC), Pirates of Cilicia (178–112 BC), Romans (112–95 BC and 55 BC – 395 AD), Armenian Kingdom under the reign of Tigranes the Great (95–55 BC) Byzantines (395–638; 964–1071), Abbasids, Great Seljuq Empire, Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (1078–1359), Mamluks, Ramadanid Principality, Ottoman Empire, Republic of Turkey.

Society and culture

One of the major elements that define the society of Adana is the agriculture-based living and its extension, agriculture-based industrial culture. However, developments in industrial life, improvements in transportation, effects of communication and massive migrations have affected the unique culture of Adana. Similar to other cities in Turkey, the culture in some sections in the city are very distinct from each other.

Cuisine

Adana cuisine is influenced mainly from Yörük, Arabic and Armenian cuisine and the city has kept up its traditions. Spicy, sour and fatty dishes made of meat (usually lamb) and bulghur are common. Bulghur and flour are found in all Çukurova kitchens. In almost every home, red pepper, spices, tahini, a chopping block and pastry board can be found. The bulghur used in cooking is specific to Adana, made from dark colored hard wheat species with a preferred flavor.

Adana Kebab, called "Kebap" locally, is a kebab made from minced meat. Since it can be found at all kebab restaurants in Turkey and at most Turkish restaurants around the world, the Adana name still suggests kebab to many people. Adana Kebab is the most popular dining choice in Adana, although foods from other cultures are becoming increasingly popular. Besides many kebab restaurants, there are also many kebab serving vendors in the older streets of Adana.

Adana Kebab is usually served with onion salad, green salad or with well-chopped tomato salad. Rakı and Şalgam usually accompany it as drinks. There are many varieties of salads typical to the city. Radish salad with tahini is popular and it is found only in the Çukurova region. Şalgam and pickle juice are the drinks of the winter and aşlama (licorice juice) is the choice of drink in summer.

One of the famous sweets of Turkey called "Sweet Sausage" originated from Adana. It was invented by Sir Duran O. during the First World War, around 1915 Seker Sucugu.

Vegetable dishes are also popular in the city. Besides tomato paste, pepper paste is used in almost every dish. The city is also famous for its Şırdan a kind of home-made sausage stuffed with rice, and eaten with cumin; paça, boiled sheep's feet; bicibici (pronounced as bee-jee-bee-jee) made from jellied starch, rose water and sugar is served with crushed ice and consumed especially in summertime. Furthermore, the city has a number of famous desserts, such as Halka Tatlı, a round-shaped dessert, and Taş Kadayıf, a bow-shaped dessert. Several types of fruit, including the apricot, are native to this area.

Arts and entertainment

Performing arts

Çukurova State Symphony Orchestra performed its first concert in 1992 and since then, the orchestra performs twice weekly from October to May at the Metropolitan Theatre Hall. The orchestra consists of 39 musicians and conducts regular tours in Turkey and abroad.

Adana State Theater opened its stage in 1981 at the Sabancı Cultural Center. It performs regularly from October to May. Adana Town Theatre was founded in 1880 by governor Ziya Paşa to be the first theater in Adana. In 1926, the theater moved to the newly-built Community Center. Town Theatre currently performs weekly at the Metropolitan Theatre Hall and the Ramazanoğlu Center. Seyhan Town Theatre and Seyhan Folkloric Dances are weekly events at the Theater Hall of Seyhan Cultural Center.

Amphitheaters in Adana host performances from April to November. Mimar Sinan Amphitheater, the largest in Adana, can accommodate 8,000 guests and hosts concerts and movies. It is located at the west bank of the Seyhan River. 2,100-seater Merkez Park Amphitheater, 3,000-seater Çukurova University Amphitheater and Doğal Park Amphitheater in Çukurova District also host theaters, concerts and cinemas. Recently, historic buildings have been restored and converted into cultural centers. The 515-year-old Ramazanoğlu Hall and 130-year-old former high school for girls (now called the Adana Center for Arts and Culture) serve as cultural centers hosting art exhibitions and cultural events.

Museums and art galleries

Adana Archaeological Museum was opened in 1924 as one of the oldest ten museums in Turkey. It moved to its current location at the west corner of Seyhan Bridge in 1972. The museum exhibits archeological works from all over Çukurova. Notable works are the two Augustus statues from Hittites, Achilles Sarcophagus depicting Trojan War and statues from Magarsus and Augusta ancient cities.

Adana Ethnography Museum was opened in 1983 after Archeological Museum moved to its new location. In the front and back yard there are epitaphs and gravestones of Adana's leading figures of the 17th century. In the west yard, there are inscriptions of Taşköprü, Misis Bridge, old City Hall and Bahripaşa Fountain. Inside, there are clothing, jewellery and weaponry of Yörük villagemen.

Atatürk Museum exhibits War of Independence and first years of Republic at the mansion where Atatürk stayed during his trips to Adana.

Misis Mosaic Museum, located on the city's far east end at the west bank of Ceyhan river, exhibits mosaics that were on the floor of a 4th-century temple in the ancient city of Misis. The mosaic depicts Noah and 23 birds and poultry that he took onto the ark during the Flood. The museum also exhibits the works that were excavated from Misis Tumulus.

Karacaoğlan Museum of Literature, Adana Museum of Cinema, Yeşiloba Martyrs' Museum, Mehmet Baltacı Museum of Photography and Adana Urban Museum are other noteworthy museums in the city, many of them located in restored historical buildings. State Fine Arts Gallery was opened in Sabancı Cultural Center in 1982. It carries 59 plastic pieces of art. 75.Yıl Art Gallery in Atatürk Park, Adana City Hall Art Gallery and Art Gallery in Seyhan Cultural Center are the other public art galleries.

Festivals

Altın Koza International Film Festival is one of the top film festivals in Turkey, taking place since 1969. During the Altın Koza of 2009, 212 international films were shown in 11 movie theatres across the city. Long Film Contest, International Student Film Contest and Mediterranean Cultures Film Contest are held during the festival.

International Sabancı Theater Festival is held every year in April since 1999. At the festival in 2011, 461 artists from 17 ensembles (10 local and 7 international) performed plays on the stage at the Sabancı Cultural Center. The festival's opening show was staged on the Seyhan River and Taşköprü by Italian ensemble Studio Festi. "Water Symphony" show was greeted by thousands of people with great enthusiasm.

Orange Blossom Carnival is held every April, inspired by the scent coming from the city's orange tree-lined streets. The carnival parade of 2015 attracted more than 90 thousand people—the highest attendance ever in an outdoor event in Adana. Organized concerts and shows in the city's squares, parks and streets are accompanied by spontaneous street celebrations.

International Çukurova Instrumental Music Festival is a two-week long festival held annually in Adana, Antakya and Gaziantep. In 2009, the festival took place for the fifth time with an opening concert from Çukurova State Symphony Orchestra. Baritone Marcin Bronikowski, pianist Vania Batchvarova, guitarist Peter Finger, cellist Ozan Tunca and pianist Zöhrap Adıgüzelzade were some of the musicians who performed at the festival.

Çukurova Art Days is a regional festival that takes place yearly since 2007. In 2012, the festival took place on 22–26 March in Adana, Mersin, Tarsus, Antakya, İskenderun, Silifke, Anamur and Aleppo. There were 94 events including concerts, poetry, exhibitions, talks and conferences.

13 Kare Arts Festival began in 1999 as a festival of photography dedicated to 13 photographers of Adana who died in an accident during an AFAD (Adana Photography Amateurs Association) trip. The festival then expanded to include other arts. During the festival, exhibitions of nature, undersea and architecture photography, puppet shows, shadow theater and several concerts are held. The festival takes place every December.

Adana Literature Festival is held every April at Adana Center for Arts & Culture. Around 100 writers, poets and critics participate in the festival and give talks, make up panels and make presentations.

Nightlife

The city was well known for its vibrant nightlife and many pavyons from the 1950s to the 1980s. Although some were family entertainment places, pavyons mostly functioned as adult entertainment clubs, similar to hostess clubs of Japan, with live music, usually two-storey, a stage and a lounge with tables lined up at the main floor and private rooms at the upper floor. The first pavyons opened in the city by 1942 with the arrival of English workers who worked on the Adana-Ulukışla road that was funded by the British Government to persuade Turkey to form a front in World War II. As Çukurova cotton was valued by the early 1950s, the surplus took landowners to the pavyons which opened more and more along the Seyhan river. In the 1960s, rapid industrialization brought more men to pavyons not only from the city, but from a wide region including Istanbul and Ankara, thus Adana was named Pavyon Capital of Turkey. Many popular singers took the stage at and owe their fame to the pavyons of Adana.

Pavyons led the way to Western-style pubs and night clubs by the late 1980s with the socio-economic changes in Adana. The traditional entertainment district is Sular, near Central Station, but the pubs and clubs nowadays are spread throughout the city. The bigger clubs such as Life Legend, Uptown, Casara and Lava host world star singers at their elegant locations, mostly along the river and the lake. There are still two active pavyons, Afrodit and Maksim, but adult entertainment is directed mostly to what is known locally as tele-bars. Tele-bars are licensed as regular pubs, but function as places where bargirls entertain customers and usually hook with them afterwards. There are around 20 tele-bars mainly in the city center and around the old dam.

A hundred-year-long tradition of kebab, liver and rakı in the Kazancılar Bazaar, with street music and dances, turned into a festival since 2010, with all-night entertainment. World Rakı Festival, held the second Saturday night of December, attracts more than 20 thousand people to the old town.

Contemporary life

Shopping

Çakmak Street is the traditional shopping street that is located in the old town. Several attempts by the city to designate it as a pedestrianised street was unsuccessful because traffic flow could not be diverted to another street. There are several historical bazaars around Büyük Saat and Yağ Camii. Covered markets around Saydam street, Kilis and Mısır bazaars, were once a haven for shopping for quality foreign goods.

Ziyapaşa Boulevard is the street of elegance where expensive brands are located. The street runs from D-400 state road to the Central Train Station and the shops are concentrated towards the north end. The streets around Ziyapaşa and the streets of northern Adana, Özal, Demirel and Evren boulevards also have high-end shops.

There are four modern shopping malls in the city. Galleria was the first to be built in the early 1990s but did not become popular due to administrative issues. M1 and Carrefour malls were built during the late 1990s at the west end of the city. Recently opened Optimum Outlet is the first mall east of the river and is also the closest to the city center. The mall has a view of the river and the Merkez Park.

Healthcare

Adana is a major health center to a wide region from Mediterranean to Southeastern Anatolia. There are four university hospitals, eight state hospitals and seven private hospitals in the city.

Hastaneler (Hospitals) area in the Seyhan district is home to hospitals lined up on both sides of the H. Ömer Sabancı Street. Numune General Hospital, Çukurova State Hospital, Hospital for Thoracic Diseases, Military Hospital and medical centers are healthcare facilities in this area.

Balcalı Hospital of the Çukurova University is a research hospital that was founded in 1987 after the Faculty of Medicine moved to the main campus. The hospital has 1050 inpatient beds in 47 service units, a 58-bed intensive care unit and 17-bed emergency unit. It is the largest hospital in Southern and Southeastern Anatolia and one of the major hospitals of Turkey.

A new health campus is expected to open in Yüreğir by 2014, which will include a 600-bed General Hospital, 200-bed Heart and Stroke Hospital, 250-bed maternity hospital, 100-bed oncology hospital, 150-bed Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Center, 100-bed Psychiatry Hospital. The campus will have a capacity of 1400 inpatients in total and will be connected to Hastaneler area of the Seyhan district through a bridge over the Seyhan river which will create one big campus.

Transportation

Adana is on the major route that connects Europe to the Middle East. In the 16th century, Adana was a port city where ships could navigate on Seyhan River to the port just south of Taşköprü.

Intercity transport

Şakirpaşa Airport lies just west of the old town. Together with the Central Bus Terminal and the Central Train Station, the three are the main locations for intercity transportation.

Şakirpaşa Airport, located within the city, is an international airport serving the Çukurova region. It is the sixth busiest airport in Turkey for passenger traffic, with 5.4 million passengers in 2015. There are international flights to major cities of Germany, to Beirut, Jeddah, Erbil and Nicosia (TRNC), frequent domestic flights to Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Antalya, Trabzon, Bodrum and Van.

Turkish State Railways (TCDD) runs five long distance lines that connect Adana to Ankara, Kayseri, Karaman, Konya and Elâzığ. All these lines are served at the Central Railway Station; some are also served at the other railway stations of the city—Şehitlik and Şakirpaşa stations at the west, Kiremithane, İncirlik and Yakapınar stations at the east. TCDD also runs three regional lines in Çukurova. Adana-Mersin Line runs as a commuter train with 27 train times daily. Train service from Adana to Osmaniye-Islahiye and to Iskenderun run once daily. Regional trains stop at all city stations.

Although they lost their popularity as private airlines introduced inexpensive flights to major cities, coaches are still the major form of transportation to and from Adana. Adana has two intercity coach terminals providing service to almost all the cities and towns in Turkey. Coach companies that serve transportation to cities west of Adana, depart from Central Coach Terminal, whereas the buses that serve cities east of Adana depart from Yüreğir Coach Terminal. A shuttle service is provided between the two terminals. Regional bus services from Adana to other places in Çukurova are plentiful and carried by bus and minibus co-operatives. Seasonal bus services to the high plains of Tekir, Bürücek and Kızıldağ run in summer, due to high demand of Adana residents escaping the heat of the city.

There is an extensive motorway network (O50-O59) in the region, connecting Adana to as far as Erdemli in the west, Niğde in the north, Şanlıurfa in the east and Iskenderun in the south. Traffic runs smoothly throughout the day; driving can take as little as 40 minutes to Mersin and two hours to Gaziantep.

Local transport

Local transport in Adana is provided by Adana Transit Corporation (a division of the Metropolitan Municipality) and by dolmuş and bus co-operatives. Transit Corporation runs the metro and the municipal buses.

Adana Metro is a rail rapid transit system that extends 14 kilometres (9 miles) from the north-west to the city center and then to Yüreğir. The metro serves 13 stations and can transport 21,600 passengers per hour one-way, a complete journey taking 21 minutes. The second line of the metro will run from Akıncılar to Çukurova University in the Sarıçam District. It will be 9.5 kilometres (6 miles) long and will have seven stations. The project is contracted in January 2010 and the construction is expected to start after the funding is received from the Ministry of Transportation. Adana Metro will eventually extend to 23.5 kilometres (14.6 miles) and serve 20 stations.

Adana Transit Corporation serves the city with 229 buses, eight of them designed specifically for disabled users. Payment is collected by Kentkart Smartcard system. Six Bus Co-operatives (known as Can buses) serve the city with 411 buses. Kentkart and cash are accepted at these buses. 18 Dolmuş Co-operatives, with a total of 1,086 minibuses, provide service even to secondary streets. The only form of payment is by cash.

Cycling and walkability

The city of Adana is mostly flat and the warm weather makes it convenient for all year cycling and walking. The square shape of the city, city center's location right at the center of the square and the river running straight north-south in the middle of the city create further advantage for cycling as a means of transportation. Compact urban form due to dominance of high-rise buildings that are closely built, especially in Seyhan and Çukurova districts, make cycling from any end of the city to the city center to take less than 40 minutes. Despite all the advantages, car-oriented urban planning since the 1950s caused cycling to take a minor part in commuting to work or school. There are no bike lanes, but there are two bike paths, one along Fuzuli Street, the other along M. Kemalpaşa Boulevard—the latter not used by cyclists at all. Bicycles for commuting are currently only used by residents of low-income neighborhoods. Bicycle use for transportation is low all over Turkey, but when compared to cities like İzmir, Konya and Eskişehir, Adana is less bicycle friendly.

Car-oriented urban planning became even more extreme since the 1980s, pedestrians seeing part of the sidewalks of the city's popular streets being converted into car-parking spots. The rise in car ownership not only caused high traffic, but also led to drivers parking their cars on the sidewalks. The city currently has no car-free squares or streets other than a few narrow ones. There are plans to convert both ends of Taşköprü to squares and widen the sidewalks in the old town where it is difficult to walk at the peddler-invaded narrow sidewalks. By far the most pedestrian friendly street of the city is Turgut Özal Boulevard; Kenan Evren and other major streets in Çukurova district are also very convenient for walking.