The Snake Castle, Adana, Cilicia

Present-day Adana is one of the fast-growing cities of Turkey. Its current residents hardly know the true history of this city. Adana was one of the main settlements of Cilicia and, until the 1930s, played an exceptional role in the life of the Armenians of Cilicia.

Even after the massacres, pogroms, deportations and attempts to rid the land of its Armenian heritage once and for all, an Armenian trace can be felt in Adana and in almost every region of the once powerful Armenian Cilicia.

The photograph shows the Snake Castle: ruins on top of a rocky hill, with crenellated walls, towers and arched openings. Below lies a wide plain with fields.