Dana Island (, also called ''Kargıncık Adası'',

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''Pithyussa'') is a small

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

island of Turkey.

Geography

Dana Adası lies parallel to south coast of Turkey at in the province of

Mersin Mersin () is a large city and port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of Mediterranean Region, Turkey, southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of the Mersin Province (formerly İçel). It is made up of four district governorates ...

. The distance from the shore is . The passage between the main land and the island which is known as Kargıcak strait is a convenient passage for maritime traffic. The shape of the island is roughly rectangular with dimensions . The highest peak is . Dana Adası is quite rocky and covered with

maquis shrubland 220px, Low maquis in Corsica 220px, High ''macchia'' in Sardinia ( , , ) or ( , ; often in Italian; , ; ; ; ) is a savanna-like shrubland biome in the Mediterranean region, typically consisting of densely growing evergreen shrubs. Maquis ...

and yellow pine forest.

History

Francis Beaufort Sir Francis Beaufort ( ; 27 May 1774 – 17 December 1857) was an Irish hydrographer and naval officer who created the Beaufort cipher and the Beaufort scale. Early life Francis Beaufort was descended from French Protestant Hugu ...

, who surveyed the south coast of Turkey in 1811–1812, states that the island was called Manavat by the local people, and Provençal Island by sailors. He suggested that this derived from the name of one of the ranks of the

Knights Hospitallers The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there u ...

who occupied forts and islands along this coast. According to recent research, there were many shipyards in Dana Island, probably dating to the

Late Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

(c. 1200 BC). Assistant professor Hakan Öniz says that the island was the largest proven shipyard in the ancient world, however, the dating of the shipyards remains uncertain, as the oldest pottery found on the island dates only to the 8th century BC and the island seems to have been occupied mainly after that period, furthermore, the peak occupation of the island occurred in Late antiquity, in fact the shipyard itself might date to the Roman and Late Antiquity periods, and the function of the rock cut features as slipways for ships has been debated. There are also some ruins at the southern coast of the main land facing the island. Probably, these two settlements were the control posts dominating the two extremes of the strait. The island was inhabited during the

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 Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and early

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

era. There are ruins of a few churches, graves, houses, aqueducts, a Roman bath and a harbour establishment at the north of the island. According to some sources, French merchants also used the island as their port during the Middle Ages.''Pocket Guide of Mersin'', MTSO, Mersin, 2004

References

External links

Dana Island
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dana Adasi Islands of Turkey Islands of Mersin Province History of Mersin Province Mediterranean islands

Geography

History

See also

References

External links