Mersin
Mersin that an important harbour city at the East Mediterranean shore, offers every possible activities to travellers with streets overshadowed by palms, city park, modern hotels, ruins near the city, numberless beaches. Moreover, the city remembered in history with the name of Saint Paul (he is from Tarsus) and with areas between Alanya and Mersin that was given from Mark Antuanious as a marriage gift to cleopatra.
About Mersin
Nearly 108 kilometre lengths of Mersin shores composed from naturel beaches. These beaches preferred because of their thin sands and cleanness, and their suitability for underwater hunting. Kulakköy, Taşucu, Susanoğlu, Kuruçay, Lamas, Yemişkumu, Kız Kalesi, Çeşmeli, Ören, Balıkova, İskele, Yenikaş, Ovacık, Büyük Ecelive and Anamur Beaches are some of that beaches. For whom fond of history and archaeology there is Viranşehir (Pomeipolis) which city built on area that area was continuous settlement place since Neolithic Age, and city is an roman city built at Rome Period.
City was Papacy in Christianity Period, than destroyed by an earthquake in 525. Necropolis (graveyard), theatre, public baths, water canals, temple ruins are exist. Eski (old) Mosque is an important building remains from Ottoman Period (1870). It was restored at different times. Rome Public Bath hosts big amount of visitors with it’s interesting mosaics.
Mersin History
This coast has been inhabited since the 9th millennium BC. Excavations by John Garstang of the hill of Yümüktepe have revealed 23 levels of occupation, the earliest dating from ca. 6300 BC. A fortification was put up around 4500 BC, but the site appears to have been abandoned between 3200 BC and 1200 BC.
Known history of this region is connected from inside to Luvi, Kizzuwatna, Hittite, Asur and Babylon Kingdoms histories. Than region dominated by Hittite, Urartu, Asur, Babylon, Lydia, Persian, Seleukos and Rome Empire, names mentioned with dominance order. Until the Ottoman’s conquer of region at 17th century, Arabians, Abbasi, Egyptian Tulunoğulları, Seljuklians, Mogols, the crusaders, Memluks, Ramzanoğulları and Karamanoğulları take control, since the 16th century this region added to Ottoman land.
By 1900, the Catholic Encyclopedia reports the city having about 18,000 inhabitants, of whom 8,000 were by ethnicity Greeks, 1,000 Armenians, and 2,000 Roman Catholics; the remaining approximately 9,000 inhabitants were presumably Muslim. The Roman Catholic parish of Mersin was administered by Capuchins; there were also Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition; schools for boys and girls, and hospitals.
Cuisine At Mersin
The local cuisine includes: kebab of course but especially the hot sandwich of grilled meats wrapped in flat bread called tantuni; the home-made sausage bumbar; carrot helva (cezerye); karsambaç (a kind of ice slush); künefe a baked cheese pastry (known throughout south-east Turkey including Mersin); and kerebiç, a semolina pudding, especially made in the month of Ramadan, and many other local soups and stews. The traditional drink of this corner of Turkey, including Mersin, is şalgam suyu (the water used to pickle turnips