Kozan
General Information
District: Adana, State: Mediterranean Region, Turkey
Area: 1690 km²
Languages Spoken: Turkish
Long Distance Code: (+90) 0322
Best Time to Visit: May to August
International Access: Adana Sakirpasa Airport (ADA)Description
History From 3000BC onwards there were Hittite settlements in all these plains behind the Mediterranean coast, based on farming and grazing animals. The area then changed hands many times, eventually becoming Flavias or Flaviopolis in the former Roman province of Cilicia Secunda. The Christian era Sis or Sissu, Sision, Sission, Sisium had an important place in ecclesiastical history both the Armenian Apostolic Church and as a Roman Catholic titular see. If the identification of Flavias with Sis, which is probable, be admitted, it will be found that it is first mentioned in Theodoret's life of St. Simeon Stylites. In the Middle Ages, Sis was the religious center of Christian Armenians, until the Armenians moved the seat of Catholicos back to Vagharshapat (Echmiadzin), in Armenia. Lequien (II, 899) gives the names of several bishops of Sis, before and after Gregory IX. Even prior to the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, Sis was an episcopal see and several names of bishops and patriarchs can be found in the literature: - Alexander, later Bishop of Jerusalem and founder of the famous library of the Holy Sepulchre in the third century - Nicetas, present at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 - John, who lived in 451; - Andrew in the sixth century - George (681) - Eustratus, Patriarch of Antioch about 868. In 704, Sis was besieged by the Arabs, but relieved by the Byzantines. The Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil took it and refortified it, but it soon returned to Byzantine hands. It was rebuilt in 1186 by Leo II, king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, one of the Rupenide dynasty who made the city the capital of the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia (from 1186 till 1375). During the Crusade the catholicate returned to Sis in 1294, and remained there 150 years. In 1266 Sis, the capital of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, was captured and damaged by the Egyptian Mamluks led by Baibars. al-Said Barakah sent Qalawun to attack the city in 1277, but in 1375, Sis was taken and demolished by the Ramadanids, under the flag of the Mamluke Sultan of Egypt. The town never recovered its prosperity, not even when it passed into the power of the Ottomans in 1516. Sis became Kozan during overlordship of Kozanogullari, a Turkmen clan between 1700-1866. In 1441, Sis having fallen from its high estate, the Armenian clergy proposed to remove the see, and on the refusal of the Catholicos of the day, Gregory IX, installed a rival, namely Kirakos I Virapetsi (Kirakos of Armenia) at Echmiadzin, who, as soon as Selim I had conquered Greater Armenia[citation needed], became the more widely accepted of the two by the Armenian church in the Ottoman Empire. The Catholicos of Sis (of the Holy See of Cilicia) maintained himself nevertheless, with under his jurisdiction several bishops, numerous villages and convents, and was supported in his views by the Catholic Pope up to the middle of the 19th century, when the patriarch Nerses, declaring finally for Echmiadzin, carried the government with him. In 1885, Sis tried to declare Echmiadzin schismatic, and in 1895 its clergy took it on themselves to elect a Catholicos without reference to the patriarch; but the Porte annulled the election, and only allowed it six years later upon Sis renouncing its pretensions to independence.[citation needed] That Catholicos had the right to prepare the sacred myron (oil) and to preside over a synod, but was in fact not more than a metropolitan, and regarded by many Armenians as schismatic. Kozan was occupied by France between March 8, 1919 - June 2, 1920 during Turkish War of Independence. After declaring republic in Turkey, Kozan was a province, compromised districts of Kozan, Kadirli, Feke and Saimbeyli between 1923-1926.Location
Kozan is a city in Adana Province, Turkey, 68 km north of the city of Adana, in the northern section of the Cukurova plain. The city is the capital of Kozan district. The Kilgen Stream, a tributary of the Ceyhan River (formerly the Jibun or Pyramus), flows through Kozan and crosses the plain south into the Mediterranean Sea. The Toros mountains rise up sharply behind the town. Sis was the capital of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.Climate
Typical Mediterranean climate
Beside the Sumbas Cayi, near the village of Anavarza in Upper Cukurova, to the east of the Ceyhan-Kozan road, lie the easily recognized walled ruins of Anazarbus, at one time the minor capital of Lesser Armenia. Perched dizzily on an isolated crag some 200m/650ft directly above the town (and reached by steps from near the theater) are extensive remains of the fortress (upper and lower fort). in addition to the ancient main street other town ruins include a Roman stadium, a theater, an aqueduct, several churches and a fine gate to the south.
The local open-air museum (situated away from the site itself, in the center of the village) has some famous mosaics from the third century.
Founded in the first century B.C. Anazarbus was a Romano-Byzantine town. in the 12th century, after numerous disputes with Byzantium and with the aid of the Crusaders, it passed to Lesser Armenia, the principal capital of which was Sis (Sisium/Kozan). Although from 1199 onwards the Armenian princes styled themselves kings, they were always forced, in the final resort, to acknowledge Byzantine supremacy. While close links between the royal house and the Mongols preserved Anazarbus from destruction, in 1297 a Mongol prince had 40 Armenian noblemen, together with Hetum their king, murdered at a banquet in the town.
The local open-air museum (situated away from the site itself, in the center of the village) has some famous mosaics from the third century.
Founded in the first century B.C. Anazarbus was a Romano-Byzantine town. in the 12th century, after numerous disputes with Byzantium and with the aid of the Crusaders, it passed to Lesser Armenia, the principal capital of which was Sis (Sisium/Kozan). Although from 1199 onwards the Armenian princes styled themselves kings, they were always forced, in the final resort, to acknowledge Byzantine supremacy. While close links between the royal house and the Mongols preserved Anazarbus from destruction, in 1297 a Mongol prince had 40 Armenian noblemen, together with Hetum their king, murdered at a banquet in the town.