Saimbeyli
General Information
District: Adana, State: Mediterranean Region, Turkey
Area: 1157 km²
Languages Spoken: Turkish
Long Distance Code: (+90) 0322
Best Time to Visit: May to August
International Access: Adana Sakirpasa Airport (ADA)Description
History The area was occupied as far back as the Hittite period and many other civilisations subsequently, including Byzantium. Formerly, the Armenian city of Hadjin stood near Saimbeyli. The name reportedly came from the son of an Armenian lord of the castle of Anazarva on the Cilician plain. When the plain was occupied by invading Turks, the Armenians retreated to the mountains and Hadjin was founded in 1096. The city thrived until it passed into Ottoman hands. During the late years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century, there were repeated massacres of Armenians throughout Anatolia, and in particular in Adana and Tarsus as well as in Hadjin. These massacres became the official genocidal state policy of both the Ottoman Empire in its waning days and by the new Turkish state that arose at the close of World War I ("The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-16," Viscount Bryce, 1916, G.P. Putnam's Sons). The massacres were carried out by Turkish soldiers as well as by ordinary Turkish citizens living in the surrounding mountains. During World War I, the Turkish authorities utterly destroyed the Armenian population of Hadjin in the most barbaric manner (no mercy was shown to Armenians; women, children and old men were burnt to death in their churches. See the larger story recounted in the Armenian Genocide.) Rose Lambert, an American missionary in Hadjin in the early 20h century provides a wealth of details about earlier massacres in her book ("Hadjin and the Armenian Massacres," 1911, Fleming Revell Co. pub.). The last remnants of the original Armenian residents of Hadjin were deported into the deserts of Syria in 1915 by the Ottomans. Most of them died of thirst, starvation, or were savagely murdered.[1]. There are no Armenians left in Saimbeyli today. The city of Hadjin was destroyed during WWI.Location
Saimbeyli is a small city and a district in Adana Province, Turkey in what was known during the Middle Ages as Cilician Armenia. The city of Saimbeyli is in the Toros mountains, 157 km north of the city of Adana, by a difficult road. The city has a population of 3,952. The city of Saimbeyli is on the river Göksu (one of the sources of the Seyhan, in a valley between the forested mountains of Dibek and Bakir. There is a pass through the mountains from here to Kayseri and the valley is watered by many mountain streams.Climate
Typical Mediterranean climate