Balabolu is a hill and an archaeological site on the hill in
Mersin Province,
Turkey.
It is in the rural area of
Mut ilçe at . Its distance to
Yalnızcabağ village is about , to Mut is and to
Mersin
Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin Province, Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and dis ...
is . Visitors follow Mut-
Ermenek highway and turn north to reach the site.
The original name of the site was
Adrasus
Adrasus or Adrasos was a town of ancient Cilicia, and in the later province of Isauria, inhabited in Roman and Byzantine times. It later became a bishopric; no longer the seat of a residential bishop, it remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic ...
(or Andrassos). Adrasus was a
Roman and
Byzantine town. The
Battle of Andrassos in which Byzantines defeated
Hamdanid army in 960 was around Adrasus. In the 13th century the town fell to
Nure Sofi Nûre Sûfi Bey ( tr, Nureddin Bey) was the founder of Karamanid dynasty, a Turkic dynasty which ruled part of Anatolia in the 14th and 15th centuries as a rival of the Ottoman Empire. He was the son of Hodja Sad al-Din ( tr, Hoca Sadeddin) who had ...
of
Karamanids
The Karamanids ( tr, Karamanoğulları or ), also known as the Emirate of Karaman and Beylik of Karaman ( tr, Karamanoğulları Beyliği), was one of the Anatolian beyliks, centered in South-Central Anatolia around the present-day Karaman Pro ...
.
The ruins
The buildings are mostly demolished. But it appears that a there was a church on top of the hill. The rock carved rooms are in the slopes. There is a cistern and a canal. The necropolis is around the hill. There are figures of animals (like lion) in some sarcophagi..
Turkish Culture portal
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References
{{Ancient settlements in Turkey
Mut District
Ancient Greek archaeological sites
Archaeological sites in Mersin Province, Turkey