Durak railway station ( meaning "Stop station") is a railway station in the

Mersin Province Mersin Province (), formerly İçel Province (), is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality in southern Turkey, on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast between Antalya Province, A ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Since the station is not near any settlement, it is used mainly as a siding. Durak station was originally opened on 27 April 1912 by the

Baghdad Railway Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

. Sitting at the base of the

Taurus Mountains The Taurus Mountains (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Toros Dağları'' or ''Toroslar,'' Greek language, Greek'':'' Ταύρος) are a mountain range, mountain complex in southern Turkey, separating the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coastal reg ...

, the station was used as a staging point to construct the railway further through the mountains, similar to Ulukışla station. The station house was built in the

Turkish Neoclassical The First national architecture movement (), also referred to in Turkey as the National architecture Renaissance (), or Turkish Neoclassical architecture (), was a period of Turkish architecture that was most prevalent between 1908 and 1930 but c ...

style, similar to the Yenice station house. The choice of a railway station at Durak (also called Dorak) was not accidental, since the site is near the junction of two very strategic ancient roads that once connected 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 east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

to the

Cilician Gates The Cilician Gates or Gülek Pass is a pass through the Taurus Mountains connecting the low plains of Cilicia to the Anatolian Plateau, by way of the narrow gorge of the Gökoluk River. Its highest elevation is about 1000m. The Cilician Gates ...

. In the 12th or 13th century during the period of the

Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, also known as Cilician Armenia, Lesser Armenia, Little Armenia or New Armenia, and formerly known as the Armenian Principality of Cilicia, was an Armenian state formed during the High Middle Ages by Armenian ...

an impressive three-storey fortified estate house, today known as Kız, was constructed just northwest of Durak to guard these roads.Carefully documented photographs and plan of Kız Kalesi near Durak statio

/ref> Like the nearby

Tece Castle Tece Castle () is a ruined castle in Mersin Province, southern Turkey. Location The castle is in the Tece suburb of Mezitli which is a secondary municipality of Mersin. Its distance to Mersin city center is about . Although it is close to the s ...

the masonry and architectural features of Kız indicate that it was built by Armenian masons, perhaps for the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

TCDD Taşımacılık TCDD Transport or Turkish State Railways Transport (, reporting mark TCDDT) is a government-owned railway company responsible for the operations of most passenger and freight rail in Turkey. The company was formed on 14 June 2016, splitting off ...

operates two daily intercity trains 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. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...

and

Kayseri Kayseri () is a large List of cities in Turkey, city in Central Anatolia, Turkey, and the capital of Kayseri Province, Kayseri province. Historically known as Caesarea (Mazaca), Caesarea, it has been the historical capital of Cappadocia since anc ...

Adana Adana is a large city in southern Turkey. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative seat of the Adana Province, Adana province, and has a population of 1 81 ...

References

External links

TCDD Taşımacılık

Passenger trains
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128023645/https://www.tcddtasimacilik.gov.tr/trenler , date=2020-11-28
Durak station timetable
Transport buildings and structures in Tarsus Railway stations in Mersin Province Railway stations in Turkey opened in 1912