Alata River () is small river in

Erdemli Erdemli is a town and district of Mersin Province in the Mediterranean region of Turkey, west of the city of Mersin. Geography Erdemli is located between the districts of Mezitli (to the east) and Silifke (to the west). In the north, Erdemli i ...

ilçe The 81 provinces of Turkey are divided into 973 districts (''ilçeler''; sing. ''ilçe''). In the early Turkish Republic and in the Ottoman Empire, the corresponding unit was the ''kaza''. Most provinces bear the same name as their respectiv ...

(district) of

Mersin Province Mersin Province ( tr, ), formerly İçel Province ( tr, ), is a province in southern Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast between Antalya and Adana. The provincial capital and the biggest city in the province is Mersin, which is composed of fo ...

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

Geography

The headwaters are around the village of Toros (Küçüksorgun) in the

Toros Mountains The Taurus Mountains ( Turkish: ''Toros Dağları'' or ''Toroslar'') are a mountain complex in southern Turkey, separating the Mediterranean coastal region from the central Anatolian Plateau. The system extends along a curve from Lake Eğirdir ...

at an elevation of about . In the upper reaches it is usually called Sorgun Creek ( tr, Sorgun Çayı). Flowing to south for , it empties into the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

at . Presently its estuary is in the urban fabric of Erdemli.

History

According to the 1892 map drawn by Vital Cuinet and the 1897-

salname A salname (also called ''nevsal'') was an official annal of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. Etymology ''Salname'' comes from Persian language, Persian ''sal'' 'year' and ''name'' 'letter'. History The first salname was published in 1847. I ...

(provincial annal) of Adana, Alata was the border line between

Mersin Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin Province, Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and dis ...

and İçil districts (which were later merged with). At the estuary there was an active commercial pier. According to researcher Mehmet Mazak, during 1880-1920 term, Alata pier was the only Mediterranean pier between Mersin and

Taşucu __NOTOC__ Taşucu (Greek: Ὅλμοι, Holmoi) is a small town of Silifke, Mersin Province, Turkey. It obtained the status of Municipality after the local elections in Turkey, 1955. By the new regulations on the constitution, it legally got the sta ...

piers. Presently there is only a small fishing pier.

Hydroelectric power plant

A dam on the Alata River under the supervision of Turkish

State Hydraulic Works The State Hydraulic Works ( tr, Devlet Su İşleri) is a state agency, under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Turkey, responsible for the utilization of all the country's water resources. The institution's four major functions are ene ...

is under construction. The dam will serve for irrigation as well as energy production. The elevation of the rockfill dam is . 52410 decare of land will be irrigated and 37678 GW-hour of electric energy will be produced.

References

{{Mersin Province Rivers of Mersin Province Erdemli District Energy in Turkey Rivers of Turkey