Bozyazı is a town and 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 f ...

on the

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 north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

coast of

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

, west of the city of

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

Geography

Bozyazı is a remote coastal district with the

Taurus 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 Eğird ...

as a backdrop; The roads over the mountains or along the coast from either direction are very difficult to drive making Bozyazı too far from large cities or the established centres of tourism to attract many visitors, so the district is quiet and unspoilt. However there are developments of holiday flats in some places, mainly owned by people from

Konya Konya () is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium (), although the Seljuks also called it D ...

and

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

as well as foreigners. The sea is clean and Bozyazı is home to an important colony of the endangered

Mediterranean monk seal The Mediterranean monk seal (''Monachus monachus'') is a monk seal belonging to the family Phocidae. , it is estimated that fewer than 700 individuals survive in three or four isolated subpopulations in the Mediterranean, (especially) in the Ae ...

. The narrow coastal strip has a temperate climate and is used to grow bananas along with strawberries, citrus fruits, ground-nuts, and a variety vegetables and fruits. The higher land (over 50% of the district) meanwhile is used for apples and walnuts. There are areas of cedar and fir trees. The highest peaks are Tol Dağı (1,250 m), Azıtepe (780 m), Susmak Dağı (1,600 m), Kaş Dağı (1,639 m) and Elmakuzu Dağı (1,690 m), there are areas of high meadow in these mountains used for summer grazing. Bozyazı river rushes off Elmakız through a rocky gorge, there is a dam and hyrodelectric power station 14 km north of Bozyazı. About 60% of the population lives in the town of Bozyazı, a small town providing high schools and healthcare to the surrounding villages. There are two other small towns ( Tekmen and Tekeli) and about 40 villages. The biggest village is Karaisali. These are quiet places where the people are conservative; old and young spend the evenings sitting by the sea spitting out sunflower and pumpkin seeds; there is little nightlife, maybe the odd restaurant with a piano player. Mersin Archaeological Museum 3

History

The ruins of the ancient Greek city of

Nagidos Nagidos ( grc, Νάγιδος; la, Nagidus) was an ancient city of Cilicia. In ancient times it was located between Anemurion to the west and Arsinoe to the east. Today its ruins are found on the hill named ''Paşabeleni'' at the mouth of the ...

are on a hill above the town of Bozyazı. They are being excavated by a team from Mersin University who have found traces of occupation going back to the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

period of the 4th century BC, when Nagidos was an outpost of

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...

and

Samos Samos (, also ; el, Σάμος ) is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a sepa ...

, a small port established to trade goods from

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

and

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

. The town was subsequently controlled by Ptolemaic Empire,

Ancient Romans In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–50 ...

, Byzantines,

Cilician Armenia The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (Middle Armenian: , '), also known as Cilician Armenia ( hy, Կիլիկեան Հայաստան, '), Lesser Armenia, Little Armenia or New Armenia, and formerly known as the Armenian Principality of Cilicia ( hy, ...

and

Seljuk Turks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turk ...

References

External links

District governor's official website

District municipality's official website

BozyazıMersin gezilecek yerlerPeople Of Bozyazı
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bozyazi Populated places in Mersin Province Populated coastal places in Turkey Districts of Mersin Province