The Seyhan River Corridor: Merkez Park, Suspension Bridges and Seyhan Dam Lake

Unlike inland cities that feel boxed in by concrete, Adana possesses a magnificent five-kilometre green corridor running right through the centre of town along the Seyhan River, connecting Turkey's largest urban riverside park directly with a vast turquoise inland lake surrounded by pine woods.

1. Merkez Park (Central Park, 33 Hectares Directly North of Sabancı Mosque)

Starting directly at the northern garden wall of the Sabancı Central Mosque and stretching for 1.5 kilometres up both banks of the Seyhan River to the railway viaduct, Merkez Park is a 330,000-square-metre botanical oasis planted with over 40,000 trees (including date palms, jacarandas, citrus trees, magnolias and weeping willows):

• The Two Pedestrian Suspension Bridges (Sinanpaşa & Gençlik Köprüleri): two graceful white cable-stayed pedestrian and cycle suspension bridges (300 metres long) span the river inside the park, giving you postcard camera angles looking back south at the six minarets of Sabancı Mosque framed by palms and reflected in the water.
• Rowboats, Amphitheatre & Cycling: rent a bicycle or electric scooter along the 3-kilometre flat waterfront path, watch university rowing teams and dragon-boat crews train on the river, or relax on the lawns around the 2,100-seat open-air amphitheatre.

2. Seyhan Dam Lake (Seyhan Baraj Gölü), Adnan Menderes Boulevard & Sevgi Adası

Three kilometres north of Merkez Park (a 10-minute ride on municipal buses or taxi, or a pleasant 40-minute walk/bike ride along the river parkway past Dilberler Sekisi), the Seyhan River widens behind the 1956 Seyhan Hydroelectric Dam into the sparkling 4-kilometre-wide expanse of Seyhan Dam Lake:

• Adnan Menderes Boulevard & Sevgi Adası ("Love Island"): curving along the southern and western shore of the lake is a breezy, four-kilometre lakeside promenade lined with tea gardens, bici bici ice parlours, fish restaurants and bicycle lanes. When water levels are low in late summer and autumn, a natural sandspit causeway emerges so you can walk out toward pine-covered Sevgi Adası in the middle of the lake; when the lake is full, wooden excursion boats and pedalos circle the island at sunset.
• Çatalan (Eastern & Western) Bridges: spanning the northern arms of the lake (at 1,575 metres long, the Longest lake bridge in Turkey), leading to the lakeside Çukurova University campus and the hilltop monument of Çobandede Park.