Durak railway station ( tr, Durak istasyonu meaning "Stop station") is a railway station in the
Mersin Province of
Turkey. Since the station is not near any settlement, it is used mainly as a siding. Durak station was originally opened on 27 April 1912 by the
Baghdad Railway. Sitting at the base of the
Taurus Mountains, the station was used as a staging point to construct the railway further through the mountains, similar to
Ulukışla station.
[ The station house was built in the ]Turkish Neoclassical
The First national architectural movement ( tr, Birinci Ulusal Mimarlık Akımı), also referred to in Turkey as the National architectural Renaissance ( tr, Millî Mimari Rönesansı), or Turkish Neoclassical architecture ( tr, Neoklasik Türk ...
style, similar to the Yenice station house.
The choice of a railway station at Durak (also called Dorak) was not accidental, since the site is near the junction of two very strategic ancient roads that once connected the Mediterranean Sea to the Cilician Gates. In the 12th or 13th century during the period of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia
The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (Middle Armenian: , '), also known as Cilician Armenia ( hy, Կիլիկեան Հայաստան, '), Lesser Armenia, Little Armenia or New Armenia, and formerly known as the Armenian Principality of Cilicia ( hy, ...
an impressive three-storey fortified estate house, today known as Kız, was constructed just northwest of Durak to guard these roads.[Carefully documented photographs and plan of Kız Kalesi near Durak statio]
/ref> Like the nearby Tece Castle
Tece Castle ( tr, Tece Kalesi) is a ruined castle in Mersin Province, southern Turkey.
Location
The castle is in the Tece suburb of Mezitli which is a secondary municipality of Mersin. Its distance to Mersin city center is about . Although it i ...
the masonry and architectural features of Kız indicate that it was built by Armenian masons, perhaps for the Crusaders.TCDD Taşımacılık
TCDD Taşımacılık A.Ş. ( en, TCDD Transport, reporting mark TCDDT) is a government-owned railway company responsible for the operations of most passenger and freight rail in Turkey. The company was formed on 14 June 2016, splitting off from th ...
operates two daily intercity trains from Konya[ and ]Kayseri
Kayseri (; el, Καισάρεια) is a large Industrialisation, industrialised List of cities in Turkey, city in Central Anatolia, Turkey, and the capital of Kayseri Province, Kayseri province. The Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality area is comp ...
[ to Adana.
]
References
External links
TCDD Taşımacılık
Passenger trains
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128023645/https://www.tcddtasimacilik.gov.tr/trenler , date=2020-11-28
Durak station timetable
Railway stations in Mersin Province
1912 establishments in the Ottoman Empire
Railway stations in Turkey opened in 1912