Karaisalı is a small

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and a district in

Adana Province Adana Province ( tr, ) is a province of Turkey located in central Cilicia. With a population of 2.26 million, it is the sixth most populous province in Turkey. The administrative seat of the province is the city of Adana, home to 79% of the r ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, administratively a part of the Metropolitan Municipality of

Adana Adana (; ; ) is a major city in southern Turkey. It is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The administrative seat of Adana province, it has a population of 2.26 million. Adana lies in the heart of Cilicia, wh ...

. The area contains the reservoirs of Çatalan and Nergizlik. There is a wrestling tournament in late-April to early-May at Salbaş and a countryside festival in the last week of August at Kızıldağ.

History

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

times there was a town here named Midelle. Throughout history, the town was controlled by several kingdoms, such as

Seljuk Empire The Great Seljuk Empire, or the Seljuk Empire was a high medieval, culturally Turko-Persian, Sunni Muslim empire, founded and ruled by the Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. It spanned a total area of from Anatolia and the Levant in the west to ...

and Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. Following the arrival of the Turkish population in the area the name was changed to Çeceli and inhabited by the Yüreğir and Menemencioğulları and Ramazanoğulları tribes. Between 1481 and 1496 the town was controlled by the

Mameluks Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') i ...

and once it was defeated by the Ottoman sultan

Selim I Selim I ( ota, سليم الأول; tr, I. Selim; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute ( tr, links=no, Yavuz Sultan Selim), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite las ...

, he left the control of the town to the Ramazanoğulları dynasty as a vassal state. The current name Karaisalı was later given in memory of a Ramazanoğulları lord. The town was not occupied during the

Turkish War of Independence The Turkish War of Independence "War of Liberation", also known figuratively as ''İstiklâl Harbi'' "Independence War" or ''Millî Mücadele'' "National Struggle" (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns waged by th ...

in the early 1920s and became a centre of Turkish resistance for the Çukurova area.

Karaisalı today

Long-term mayor of Adana,

Aytaç Durak Aytaç Durak (born 1938) is a Turkish politician, and has been the mayor of Adana since 1984, excluding one term (1989–1994). He is the longest serving locally elected city mayor in Turkey, currently at his 5th term. Adding his 17 years as a Co ...

is from Karaisalı and during his term the district was included in the Metropolitan Municipality of Adana.

Places of interest

*The Roman built Milvan Castle in the village of Karakılıç. *The silk road caravanserai Kesiri Han in the village of Altınova. *Another Roman castle Keçi Kalesi 40 km north-east of Karaisalı in the village of Etekli. has commanding views from its hill-top position. *The wooded hillside picnic areas of Yerköprü and Kızıldağ in particular Kapıkaya Canyon. *The attractive remote village of Kalayçılar. 7 km from the village of Hacılı on a dirt road. *Turkey's highest bridge, the long and high German built railway viaduct Varda Bridge in the village of Hacıkırı (Kıralan). *The Fish restaurant in Demirçit or otherwise known as Bolagat.

References

Cities in Turkey Districts of Adana Province Populated places in Adana Province {{Adana-geo-stub