Adana

The name Adana (Turkish pronunciation: [aˈda.na] ; Armenian: Ատանա; Greek: Άδανα) has been used for over four millennia. One theory holds that the city name originates from an Indo-European expression a danu 'on the river', using the same Proto-Indo-European root as the Danube, Don, Dnieper and Donets. Greco-Roman legend suggests that the name of Adana originates from Adanus, the son of the Greek god Uranus, who founded the city next to the river with his brother Sarus, whose name was given to the river. It is also sometimes suggested that the name is related to the Danaoi, the name for Greeks of the Trojan War in Homer and Thucydides. According to Ali Cevad's Memalik-i Osmaniye Coğrafya Lügat (Ottoman Geographical Dictionary), the Muslims of Adana attributed the city's name to Ebu Süleym Ezene, who was appointed as Wāli by Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid.

Inhabited by Luwians and Hurrians, Kizzuwatna had an autonomous governance under Hittite protection, but they had a brief period of independence from the 1500s to 1420s BC. According to the Hittite inscription of Kava, found in Hattusa (Boğazkale), Kizzuwatna was ruling Adana, under the protection of the Hittites, by 1335 BC. With the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1191–1189 BC, native Denyen sea peoples took control of Adana and the plain until around 900 BC. Then Neo-Hittite states were founded in the region with the Quwê state centred on Adana. Quwê and other states were protected by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, though they had periods of independence too. After the Greek migration into Cilicia in the 8th century BC, the region was unified under the rule of the Mopsos dynasty and Adana was established as the capital. …

Adana is located on the 37th parallel north on the northeastern edge of the Mediterranean, occupying the center of the Cilician plain (Turkish: Çukurova, lit. 'the Trough Plain'); a relatively large stretch of flat, fertile land that lies southeast of the Taurus Mountains. The Seyhan (likely from Ancient Greek: Σάρος, romanized: Sáros) divides Adana into its two metropolitan districts, and is the main source for Adana's fertile alluvial soils, while also being responsible for the region's proclivity to regular winter and spring floods, which affected the city until embankments were built in the 1900s. The Seyhan Dam, completed in 1956, was constructed for hydroelectric power. Adana has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Csa) under the Köppen classification, and a dry summer subtropical climate (Cs) under the Trewartha classification. Winters are mild and wet. …