Adana

Adana, formerly Seyhan, city in southern Turkey, capital of Adana Province, on the Seyhan River, near the Mediterranean Sea. Adana is the marketing and distribution centre for an agricultural region in which cotton, wheat, barley, grapes, citrus fruits, olives, and tobacco are produced. The chief industries in the city are textile manufacturing, tanning, and the processing of wool and various foods. Local points of interest include a great stone bridge, built in part during the reign of the 6th century Byzantine emperor Justinian I, and the ruins of a castle dating from 782.

Adana was probably founded in 63 bc by the Roman general Pompey. For several centuries thereafter it was a stopping place on a Roman military road leading to the East. The city declined in importance after the fall of the Roman Empire in ad 476 but was rebuilt in the 8th century by Harun ar-Rashid, caliph of Baghdad. Adana was held by Egypt from 1832 to 1840, when it was restored to Turkish rule. Population 395,388 (2007 estimate).