30-Minute Train Trip to Tarsus: Cleopatra's Gate, St Paul's Well and Roman Road

Located just forty kilometres west of central Adana across the flat plain (and connected every 30 to 45 minutes by the modern TCDD regional train from central Adana Train Station in just 28 minutes), the ancient city of Tarsus was the capital of the Roman province of Cilicia, the 1st-century AD birthplace of Saul of Tarsus, and the exact river port where Egyptian Queen Cleopatra sailed up the Cydnus River on a gilded barge with purple sails in 41 BC to meet Roman general Mark Antony. Because every historical sight in Tarsus sits inside a flat 1.5-kilometre walking loop from Tarsus Train Station, it is one of the easiest and richest half-day trips in Turkey.

Five Essential Sights on a 4-Hour Tarsus Walk

1. St Paul's Well & Historic Tarsus Houses: ten minutes' walk from the station in the Kızılmurat quarter, an open-air archaeological glass shelter protects the stone foundation walls of a 1st-century AD Roman courtyard house and a 38-metre-deep ancient stone water well revered for two thousand years as the childhood home of St Paul.
2. St Paul's Memorial Museum Church & The Ancient Roman Road: walk five minutes south to the three-aisled 1862 Orthodox Church of St Paul, and cross the plaza to the Ancient Roman Road, a 6.5-metre-wide street paved with massive polygonal black basalt blocks dating to the 1st century BC, complete with an intact subterranean stone drainage canal underneath.

3. Cleopatra's Gate: the last surviving monumental Roman-Byzantine horseshoe stone gate of the ancient city walls through which Mark Antony and Cleopatra entered the city in 41 BC.
4. Tarsus Ulu Cami, Tomb of Prophet Daniel & Kırkkaşık Bedesteni: visit the 2006 excavation beneath Makam-ı Danyal Mosque, which uncovered a buried 7th-century Roman bridge arch and vault revered as the tomb of the Biblical Prophet Daniel, then browse ceramic and carob-molasses shops inside the 1579 Kırkkaşık Bedesteni next to Ulu Cami and the Nusrat Minelayer Park.
5. Tarsus Waterfall & Cave of the Seven Sleepers: finish at the shady riverside tea terraces above the 5-metre cascade of the Berdan River, whose rock cliffs are honeycombed with sunken Roman tombs, and eat a plate of silky chickpea Tarsus humusu sizzling in a clay pot with pastrami and butter.