Taşköprü (Stone Bridge)

The Taşköprü is a 300-metre stone bridge of 14 arches spanning the Seyhan, just east of the old town. It is the most striking single piece of heritage in Adana and one of the oldest still-functioning bridges anywhere. Although heavily restored, the lower courses of the central piers and the springers of the main arches are demonstrably second-century Roman work; the later repairs followed the original profile carefully enough that the bridge reads as a unified composition.

Now closed to cars, it makes a pleasant evening crossing — locals come here to watch the river light up, and there are usually a few simmit sellers and tea vendors at either end. The view of the Sabancı Central Mosque upstream is the postcard shot.

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The bridge has been in continuous use since the Roman emperor Hadrian inaugurated it in the second century CE — making it, by some counts, the oldest bridge in the world still carrying traffic. It was extensively repaired by Justinian in the sixth century and again under the Mamluks and Ottomans, and even now the central arches are the original Roman ones. Cars used the bridge until 2008, when it was finally pedestrianised after eighteen and a half centuries of vehicular service.

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