Things to Do in Adana: The Roman Bridge, the Kebab and Anavarza

--- title: "Adana travel guide: the Roman bridge, the giant mosque, Anavarza, Varda and the kebab itself" description: "An honest guide to Adana: the Seyhan riverfront and the old bazaar, the museums, full-day runs out to Varda Bridge and Anavarza, what the Adana kebab's geographical indication actually requires, how to handle the heat, and how many days you need." city: "Adana" lang: "en" ---

Adana: hot, flat, and working for a living

Most people in Turkey know Adana by a plate of food. That is not wrong, but it is a small slice of the place. The city sits in the middle of the Cukurova plain, close to the sea without ever looking at it. The Seyhan river cuts through the centre, and a stone bridge of Roman origin still crosses it and still carries people. A few hundred metres upstream is a mosque finished in the 1990s with six minarets, among the largest in the country. Two thousand years fit inside one photograph, with converted cotton mills, bazaar lanes and grill smoke filling the space between.

Who is it for? People who like cities that have not been dressed up for them. Adana is not a resort town. It is a working provincial capital built on cotton and citrus in the heat of the plain, and it goes about its business whether you are there or not. Anyone who takes food seriously gets the most out of it, because here eating is not a tourist activity, it is the frame the day hangs on. If you care about the ancient world, the north and east of the province hold some of the least-visited Roman and medieval ruins in Turkey. And anyone willing to drive can open the whole province up.

Two mistakes come up again and again. The first is arriving in July and trying to sightsee between noon and five. The Cukurova heat is not a figure of speech. Summers regularly pass 40C, humidity comes with it, and climbing an unshaded rock ridge at Anavarza in that is an endurance test, not a pleasure. The second is treating Adana as a food stop. Eat well in the centre, leave, and you have missed Anavarza, Varda Bridge and the Kozan side entirely. That is where the province separates itself from everywhere else.

Quick answer

Adana works when you give the riverfront and old bazaar one day, keep the northern and eastern castles as separate full days, and come in spring or autumn rather than high summer.

• Best time: late March to mid-May, and October through November. Mid-July and August are punishing for outdoor sites.
• The centre: Taskopru, Sabanci Central Mosque, the Great Mosque, the covered bazaar and the museums are all within walking distance.
• Full-day runs: Varda Bridge and Karaisali on one day, Anavarza and Kozan on another. A car makes both far easier.
• Food: Adana kebab has a registered geographical indication with written rules. Salgam alongside it, bici bici afterwards.

1. Taskopru

The city's symbol and the right place to start. Taskopru crosses the Seyhan and its origins are Roman: construction is attributed to the reign of Hadrian, with major repairs under Justinian. It runs about 310 metres. It began with 21 arches; 14 are visible today, the rest buried during river engineering works.

What matters here is not the age but the continuity. You are walking on one of the oldest bridges still in use anywhere, doing roughly the same job it has done for eighteen centuries. After the restoration completed in 2007 it was closed to traffic, and pedestrians have it to themselves.

Walking across it is one experience, looking at it is another. To see the run of the arches and how far they span, drop down to the west bank and view it from the water's edge. Early morning and the hour before sunset are better for both light and temperature. At midday in high summer the stone bakes and there is no shade on the deck. Give it 20 to 30 minutes, then walk north.

2. Sabanci Central Mosque

This is the thing you see when you look north from the bridge. Foundations were laid in 1988 and the mosque opened in 1998, and it is among the largest in Turkey. Six minarets, each 99 metres. The main dome spans 32 metres. Capacity is cited above 28,000, with roughly 20,000 of that inside. The architect was Necip Dinc, and the idiom is classical Ottoman.

Devoting this much space to a recent building comes down to scale. Photographs do not convey it; standing inside does. The volume under the dome shrinks you, and that effect is entirely deliberate. It borrows the vocabulary of the classical Ottoman mosque and then exceeds its proportions. Whether you like the result is a separate question, but it is hard to have an opinion without seeing it.

The riverside position is part of the point. It sits just south of Merkez Park, right on the water, and gives the city its best skyline. Try not to arrive at prayer times. Modest dress is required. Verify current visiting hours officially.

3. Merkez Park

A long municipal park running north along the river from the mosque. Inside there are pools, an artificial stream, lawns and an amphitheatre. It lines the edge of the Resatbey and Cemalpasa neighbourhoods, and for people in Adana it is a genuine part of daily life.

The story here is heat. During a summer day the park is empty, because shade is limited and the plain sun is merciless. But after eight in the evening it fills: walkers, runners, families sitting, tea being drunk. If you want to see the city's own rhythm, you catch it here in the evening, not in a museum at noon.

The traveller's use is the same. Castles and museums by day, riverside walking once it cools. Start at the Sabanci Central Mosque and head north, and you leave the lit mosque and its reflection on the water behind you. An hour covers it, though there is no reason to hurry. It is open public space, not something you need to plan around.

4. Great Mosque

Now head south from the bridge into the old city. The Ulu Camii was begun in 1509 by Ramazanoglu Halil Bey and completed in 1541 under his son Piri Mehmet Pasa. It was Adana's largest mosque until the Sabanci opened in 1998. The black and white marble banding on the walls catches your eye first, and it is not incidental: the building carries both Seljuk and Mamluk stylistic elements.

The mosque was never meant to stand alone. The Ramazanoglu complex included a medrese, a tomb, a soup kitchen, a hadith school, a hospital and a primary school. Some of these survive and can be visited. The tomb holds the Ramazanoglu beys, and the tilework is worth the detour.

The building was damaged in the 1998 earthquake and restored between 1998 and 2004. Visiting it after the Sabanci is the more instructive sequence, because the comparison makes itself: one is built to the scale of the plain, the other to the scale of a person. Thirty to forty minutes here, then go west into the bazaar.

5. The covered bazaar and the old market quarter

Immediately west of the Great Mosque the arasta and covered bazaar begin. This was Adana's commercial core and it still functions as one. It is not a tourist bazaar, and anyone hunting souvenirs will leave disappointed. What is here is coppersmiths, tinners, saddlers, rope and twine sellers and spice merchants, and most of their customers live in Adana.

The best thing about these lanes is the sound. Copper is being beaten, pots are being retinned, and that noise has come from this spot for centuries. The stretch known as Kazancilar, the coppersmiths' run, sits inside this fabric rather than behind its own gate. Mornings are the liveliest; some shops shut in the afternoon and it is largely quiet on Sundays.

Losing your bearings is normal and does not matter, since the area is small. Bargaining is real here, but keep it respectful: these are craftsmen's workshops, not a tourist trap. Give it an hour. Head north afterwards and the clock tower finds you.

6. Great Clock Tower

A stone tower rising out of the bazaar. It is Adana's second-best-known landmark and the old city's meeting point. The square around it is where people entering and leaving the market naturally pause, which makes it a good spot to watch the city from.

Dates and heights quoted for the tower vary between sources, so verify the construction year and dimensions officially rather than trusting the first number you read. What is not in doubt is its position and its role: it went up as one of the markers of late nineteenth-century Adana modernising itself, and it has stayed at the centre of market life ever since.

As a stop it is less a destination than an axis. You can look at it and move on in five minutes, but here is the better suggestion: sit at its foot with a tea for half an hour and watch. A coppersmith walking out of the bazaar, a loaded hand cart. This is the part of Adana that is not performing for visitors, which is what makes it worth your time.

7. Hamam Museum

A small museum a little south of the bazaar, installed inside a historic bathhouse. Its subject is the hamam itself: bathing culture, the objects involved, how the hot and cold rooms worked, and what the institution meant to a city. The displays lean on reconstructions and physical objects rather than long text.

Do not be snobbish about small museums, but do calibrate. This is a twenty to thirty minute place, not a half-day one. Its value is in two things: the building, meaning the experience of standing inside a domed stone chamber, and the section explaining that a hamam was a social institution rather than simply a place to get clean.

On hot days there is a bonus. The stone structure is noticeably cool inside. Ducking in here while working through the bazaar at midday counts as both a museum and a break. Verify opening hours and entry conditions officially, since these shift at smaller museums. Plan it as part of the bazaar walk rather than a trip of its own.

8. Ataturk House Museum

A two-storey mansion in Seyhan, near the river, preserved as the house Ataturk stayed in during his visits to Adana and now run as a museum. Inside are period furnishings, photographs and documents, with the house presented in its original arrangement.

Turkey has a lot of these houses and most of them resemble each other. What sets this one apart is the building. You get to see early twentieth-century Adana mansion architecture from the inside: high ceilings, timber work, and a room layout and window placement designed to cope with the heat. It is a good example of how a well-off family in the Cukurova actually built for the climate.

Twenty to thirty minutes covers it, and on its own it is a marginal call. The real reason to come is the Cinema Museum next door, and the two are best planned as a single stop. The garden is shaded, which is not a trivial advantage on a summer afternoon. It sits between Taskopru and the bazaar, so it is on your way regardless. Verify visiting hours officially.

9. Adana Cinema Museum

Right beside the Ataturk House, and the site most Adana guides skip. Its subject is the city's relationship with film, and that relationship runs deeper than you would expect. Adana has produced directors and actors for Turkish cinema; it is where Yilmaz Guney came from. The International Golden Boll Film Festival has been held here for decades.

Inside are old projectors, posters, film equipment and the history of the city's picture houses. The presentation is modest, but the argument it makes is real: the social history of the Cukurova, meaning land, farm labour and migration, became the raw material of Turkey's best-known films. The museum says so directly.

If you know nothing about Turkish cinema this will give you little, and it is worth being straight about that. But if films interest you at all, understanding how the streets you have been walking looked on screen changes the trip. Thirty minutes, combined with the Ataturk House.

10. Adana Museum

The provincial archaeology museum, and the last stop in the centre. It moved into a former factory, and the decision paid off: you walk through a high-ceilinged, wide, daylit industrial building rather than a narrow museum corridor. The structure itself speaks to Adana's cotton and textile past.

The content covers the whole Cukurova. The region's archaeology starts in the Neolithic and stacks up through Hittite, Neo-Hittite, Roman and Byzantine layers. Finds from Anavarza and Misis are held here, which matters, because the portable half of whatever you see out in the field has usually been lifted into a museum.

Our routing advice is firm: come here before you drive out to the castles in the north and east. There is a large difference between reaching Anavarza with no context and seeing a pile of stone, and seeing its mosaics and sculpture first and then walking the site. Allow an hour and a half to two hours. Verify entry and hours officially.

11. Seyhan Dam and reservoir

Just north of the city and very close to the centre. The Seyhan Dam came into operation in 1956 and does three jobs: power generation, irrigation and flood control. Roughly 174,000 hectares of farmland are irrigated from it, and it is what protects Adana from the Seyhan's floods. The reservoir covers about 67 square kilometres.

This is not a tourist attraction and should not be sold as one. It is on the list for two reasons. First, you cannot understand the Cukurova without it. This plain was not fertile on its own terms; without irrigation and flood control, today's cotton and citrus output is not possible. You are looking at the reason the city works.

Second, the practical one: the lakeshore cools in the evening and is noticeably more comfortable than the city. People in Adana drive out here at dusk. There are walking and sitting areas along the shore. It is a half-hour trip from the centre and a genuine escape on a summer evening. Pair it with Merkez Park and your evening is planned.

12. Varda Bridge

Northwest to Karaisali, and to the most striking structure in the province. Varda Bridge, at Hacikiri village, is a railway viaduct built by German engineers between 1907 and 1912. It runs 172 metres long and stands about 99 metres high. It was built as part of the Baghdad Railway and it is still in service.

The numbers do not do the work here. From the valley floor you see how slender it is and how high, and the fact that this was built in 1912 is a separate thought altogether. Construction took five years and cost the lives of 21 workers and one German engineer. Locally it also goes by Koca Kopru, Hacikiri Bridge, or the German Bridge.

The viaduct appeared in the opening chase of Skyfall in 2012, and most of its fame comes from that. It is about an hour's drive from the centre. This is a live railway line, so respect the safety signage. The Karaisali side sits above the plain and runs cooler, which makes it the most sensible summer route in the province.

13. Misis Mosaic Museum

East of the city on the bank of the Ceyhan, inside the ancient site of Misis. Known in antiquity as Mopsuestia, today as Yakapinar. The museum was founded in 1959 and one object sits at its heart: a floor mosaic dated to the fourth century.

The mosaic depicts Noah's ark. A coop-like structure occupies the centre, ringed by 23 birds, with domestic and wild animals arranged beyond them. A floor mosaic of this date, this size and this subject, displayed in situ over the ground it was laid on, is a rare thing.

One warning is needed. Sources disagree on whether the museum is currently open, and there is information in circulation that it has closed with its holdings transferred to the Adana Museum. Verify the current situation officially before setting out, or you may drive 40 kilometres for nothing. If it is open, it sits perfectly as the opening act of your Anavarza day, right on the road east.

14. Anavarza ancient city

In the Kozan district, out in the middle of the plain, and probably the least-visited major Roman city in Turkey. Anavarza, ancient Anazarbus, was one of Cilicia's principal centres under Rome and served for a time as the regional capital. What still stands includes a triumphal arch, a long colonnaded street, baths, a theatre and mosaics.

The scale is what surprises. The colonnaded street runs for kilometres and much of it is unexcavated, still under the fields. The arch stands alone in the middle of the plain. And there is usually nobody else there. A site of this size on the Aegean coast would have a queue of coaches; here you share it with sheep.

There is a price for that. Do not expect a managed visitor site: signage is limited, paths are unclear, there is essentially no shade, and there are no facilities. Do not come without water and a hat, and wear solid shoes. It is roughly a 90 minute drive from the centre. Arrive early and do not let it run into midday.

15. Anavarza Castle

On the rock ridge rising directly behind the ancient city, and effectively a separate site. The castle stretches along the top of the ridge in a long band. Roman, Byzantine, Armenian and Mamluk periods all left marks here; most of the walls you see are medieval.

You will want to go up, and you are right to, because the view is the reason. From the ridge the plan of the city below opens out: where the colonnaded street was heading, how the settlement spread across the plain, and why it was founded on exactly this spot. None of that reads from ground level.

But let us be straight. The climb is steep, rocky and unshaded. Do not attempt it at midday in high summer. That is a warning, not a suggestion. It is sweaty work even in the early morning. Budget half a day for the city and castle together. If the climb is beyond you, staying below and settling for the arch and the street is a perfectly reasonable choice, since the city earns the drive on its own.

16. Kozan Castle

Continuing north. Kozan Castle occupies a long ridge above the town and it is genuinely large. It is generally attributed to the Artuqid ruler Fahrettin Karaaslan in the twelfth century, later passed to the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, and served as a military installation in the Ottoman period. The inner castle is enclosed by a 400 metre wall containing wells, cisterns, dungeons and kitchen areas.

The length is what sets it apart. This is not a single building but a defensive line following the ridge, and if you start counting the towers you lose track. It is one of the best places to understand how the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia held this mountain belt, and seen on the same day as Anavarza the two explain each other: one holds the plain, the other the pass.

Kozan is around half an hour north of Anavarza. You can drive part of the way up, but the walk inside the walls is still long. Restoration work can close sections; verify the current situation officially.

17. Ayas Castle

Now turn south to the coast. Ayas Castle at Yumurtalik stands right at the water's edge, with a second castle on a small island facing it. In the medieval period Ayas was the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia's port on the Mediterranean, and Marco Polo is said to have begun his journey to Asia from here.

What you see today contradicts that history, and the contradiction is what makes the visit interesting. The harbour where Venetian and Genoese ships once called, the Mediterranean gateway for eastern trade, is now a quiet coastal town. The castle walls come straight out of the water and the waves break at their base. The island castle sits across from you, clearly visible from shore.

It is about a 90 minute drive from the centre. You can pair Yumurtalik with Karatas, but the coast road between them is not direct, so do not underestimate the distance. The castle has limited management, the stones can be slippery, and there is no shade. Being at the sea does not solve the heat here, it just adds humidity.

18. Karatas beach

This is Adana's sea. About an hour south of the centre, and the city's summer weekend outlet. The sand is dark, the beach is broad, and there is a town behind it.

Honesty is required here, because managing expectations is what this guide is for. Karatas looks nothing like the turquoise cove photographs of the Mediterranean, and expecting it to is unfair to the place. The water is not clear. The Seyhan and the Ceyhan carry silt onto this coast, and the sea at the mouth of two plain rivers behaves exactly like this. If you are looking for the Antalya or Kas coastline, this will not satisfy you.

So why come? Because it is not a holiday product, it is a city's beach. The crowd is local, the atmosphere is unforced, and the food is good. Fish restaurants line the shore and prices are reasonable compared with the tourist coasts. Come knowing that and you will enjoy it. Late summer sea temperatures are high, so do not expect it to cool you down.

19. Akyayan lake

A lagoon in the Karatas district and the most specialised stop on this route. The Cukurova delta is one of Turkey's most significant wetland systems, and Akyayan is part of it. People come for the birds: waterfowl concentrate here during migration and in winter, and flamingos can be seen.

Let us be plain: this is not a site set up for visitors. There are no facilities, do not expect a hide, signage is minimal, and the tracks to the water are dirt. After rain some sections become impassable. For a general traveller, the promise here is thin.

For birdwatchers the calculation inverts. The Cukurova delta is among the richest areas in the country for a species list, and very few people make it out here. Bring binoculars, come early, and add it to your Karatas day. Spring and autumn migration and the winter months are the seasons; midsummer is both hot and quiet. Verify access and protection status officially.

20. Aladaglar National Park

The far north of the province and the exact opposite of the plain. The Aladaglar are among the highest sections of the Taurus range: sharp limestone peaks, glacial valleys and summits above 3,000 metres. The park is shared between Adana, Nigde and Kayseri, with the Adana portion at the province's northern edge.

This is not a day trip, and it is better to say so upfront. Reaching the genuinely walkable parts of the Aladaglar is a long drive from central Adana, and getting into the mountains properly is a separate undertaking. Serious hikers and climbers do it from the Nigde or Kayseri side, and they camp.

So why include it in an Adana guide? Because this contrast explains the province's geography. You start on a cotton plain near sea level and reach 3,000 metre mountains without leaving the province. And there is a practical consequence: people in Adana escape the summer heat onto these yaylas, and that escape is part of the city's summer culture. If you have a spare day in summer, going north is the smartest move available.

When to go

In Adana the season matters more than everything else combined, and that is not an exaggeration. The city sits on the Cukurova plain near sea level, and summer temperatures regularly pass 40C, with humidity on top. Under those conditions, climbing an unshaded rock ridge at Anavarza or wandering the bazaar at noon is the kind of mistake that ends a trip.

Spring is best: late March to mid-May. The plain is green, the temperature suits walking, and the castles can be done as full days. Autumn is a close second, meaning October and November. The summer heat breaks, and the citrus harvest gives the region a character of its own.

Winter here is mild. There is no snow, temperatures rarely reach freezing, and the city stays entirely visitable. That makes Adana a real option in a season when much of Turkey shuts down. The trade-off is rain and difficult dirt roads, which puts places like Anavarza and Akyayan at risk. The Aladaglar are under snow.

If you have to come in summer, the plan inverts. You are outdoors from six to ten in the morning and after six in the evening; in between you are in a museum, inside a mosque, in the covered parts of the bazaar, or in your hotel. Karaisali and the north sit above the plain and are more liveable than the centre. Accept that structure and summer works. Refuse it and you will have a bad holiday.

Getting there

Flying is the practical option. Adana's airport is west of the city and very close to the centre, with regular services from Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir and some international connections. The newer Cukurova Regional Airport is also in operation, so check which airport your ticket actually uses, because the distances to the centre differ.

The train is a real alternative and underused. Adana sits at a junction of the rail network, with frequent regional services to Mersin and connections toward Ankara. The line over Varda Bridge is also active, which makes reaching the Karaisali side by train an option worth keeping in mind. Verify current timetables officially.

Buses run from everywhere and Adana's otogar is a major interchange, with frequent departures toward Gaziantep, Mersin, Hatay and Kayseri.

The real question is a car within the province. Everything in the centre is walkable and presents no problem. But Anavarza, Kozan, Varda, Yumurtalik and Karatas by public transport means serious lost time. Minibuses reach some of the district centres, but the last few kilometres and the timetable alignment become the problem. If you are staying more than two days and want to see the province, rent a car or arrange a full-day tour. Make sure the air conditioning works, and in Adana that advice is not a joke.

What to eat

Start with the Adana kebab, because here kebab is an institution rather than a dish. It carries a registered geographical indication with written rules: lamb, tail fat at roughly a third of the mixture, and red pepper flakes and salt as the only seasoning. No other spice. The meat is not machine-minced but chopped with a zirh, a wide two-handled blade, then kneaded, chopped a second time, rested cold for at least four or five hours, and pressed onto the skewer by hand. Permission to use the Adana name runs through the Adana Chamber of Commerce.

Knowing the rules is useful, because most things labelled "Adana" in the rest of Turkey have little to do with them. Telling the real thing apart is not hard: hand-chopped meat has a texture machine mince does not, and you should taste nothing beyond pepper and salt. It arrives with charred tomatoes and peppers, a seasonal salad, a plate of parsley, mint, pepper and lemon, and an onion salad.

Salgam is the kebab's other half and it is everywhere in the city. Fermented, salty and sour, made with and without chilli. The first mouthful surprises most people, but the acidity landing on top of tail fat does exactly the job it is there for. Do not leave without trying it, and do not start with the hot one.

Sirdan is for the brave only: a section of lamb tripe stuffed with rice and spices and cooked. It is sold on the street, off a cart. It is the most local thing in Adana and the thing visitors try least.

Bici bici was invented for the summer: shaved ice, starch, sugar and rose syrup. It is exactly what a hot day is asking for. You will find stalls around the bazaar and near Taskopru.

Breakfast deserves its own paragraph. Adana has breakfast streets, and the subject is not a breakfast plate: it is kebab and sirdan first thing in the morning. The city starts the day with grilled meat, and this is a real habit rather than a show put on for visitors. It concentrates around the bazaar and the Kazancilar side. Get up early, because it is over by midday.

How many days

Two full days is the minimum and it covers the city as a city. One day for the centre: Taskopru, the Sabanci Central Mosque, the Great Mosque, the covered bazaar, the clock tower and the museums. A second day for one trip out: either Varda and Karaisali, or Anavarza and Kozan. You have to choose, because they lie in opposite directions and each fills a day.

Three days is the right answer. The centre, then Varda and Karaisali, then Anavarza and Kozan. That trio genuinely covers the province: the city, the engineering and the ancient world. Comfortable by car, tiring but possible by tour.

With four or five days, add the coast: Yumurtalik and Karatas in a day, with Akyayan if you are a birdwatcher. That pace shows you Adana without rushing it, and if you have come in summer you are already losing half of each day, so the extra days are a genuine need.

If you only have one day, the honest advice is to forget the province and walk the city. Trying to reach Anavarza and get back in a day loses you both Anavarza and Adana.

FAQ

**How do I tell a real Adana kebab?**

The geographical indication rules are specific: lamb, tail fat at around a third of the mixture, and red pepper flakes and salt as the only seasoning. Nothing else goes in. The meat is chopped with a zirh, the wide two-handled blade, rather than run through a mincer, and you can taste the difference in texture. The mixture is kneaded, chopped a second time, rested cold for at least four or five hours, and skewered by hand. Anything with cumin, black pepper or garlic in it is not an Adana kebab. It is a different kebab.

**Is visiting Adana in summer really that hard?**

Yes. Temperatures regularly pass 40C and the humidity comes with it. Museums and mosques in the centre are fine, but do not attempt an unshaded rock climb like Anavarza Castle at midday in July. If you are coming in summer, split the day in two: early morning and evening outside, midday indoors. Accept that and you will be fine.

**Can I see Adana without renting a car?**

The city centre, yes, easily. Taskopru to the Great Mosque, the bazaar to the museums, all on foot or a short taxi ride. But for Anavarza, Varda, Kozan and Yumurtalik you lose serious time without a car. Transport reaches the district centres; the last few kilometres are the problem. If you do not want to drive, book a full-day tour.

**What is the sea like at Karatas?**

Not clear, and go knowing that. The Seyhan and the Ceyhan carry silt to this coast, so the water is turbid and the sand is dark. If you want the Antalya coastline you will be disappointed. If you want a local beach atmosphere, good fish and reasonable prices, you will have a good day.

**Is Karatepe-Aslantas in Adana?**

No. The Karatepe-Aslantas Open-Air Museum is in the Kadirli district of Osmaniye province. Adana guides list it as Adana constantly, because the area belonged to Adana until Osmaniye became a province in 1996 and the habit stuck. It is within driving distance of Adana, but technically it is a different province. It holds Neo-Hittite reliefs and a bilingual inscription in the Phoenician alphabet and Luwian hieroglyphs, and that inscription was decisive in deciphering Luwian hieroglyphic writing.

**Is Anavarza worth the drive?**

If the ancient world interests you, absolutely. There is no other Roman city in Turkey at this scale that sees this few visitors: a triumphal arch, kilometres of colonnaded street and a castle above it. But it is not a managed site. Signage is sparse, there is no shade, and there are no facilities. Go early, bring water and a hat, wear solid shoes. If you are not prepared for that, and ruins do not excite you, skip it.