Mersin

Mediterranean, Turkey 1 tours visit here

Mersin is a major port city on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, where the Taurus Mountains drop toward the sea at the western edge of the Çukurova plain. Its harbour is one of the largest in the country, and the city itself is modern and working rather than historic: a long seafront promenade and marina, and citrus groves across the plain behind it. It is also known nationally for tantuni and the sweet cezerye. Most travellers use Mersin as a base for the ancient sites along the provincial coast. Kanlıdivane, inland from Erdemli, is built around a vast natural sinkhole ringed by rock-cut reliefs, a Hellenistic tower and Byzantine churches. Further west lie the Corycian caves, the sinkholes known as Heaven and Hell, where a stone stairway descends to a rock-cut chapel, and the twin castles of Kızkalesi, one on the shore, one on an island just offshore. Tarsus, east of the city, keeps an old quarter, an excavated Roman road and long associations with Saint Paul. They are usually combined into a coastal day trip toward Silifke, several stops in a single day. Summers here are hot and humid; spring and autumn suit open archaeological sites better, and mornings are easiest at the sinkholes.