City (pop., 1997: 1,041,509), south-central Turkey, on the Seyhan River.
An agricultural and industrial centre and one of Turkey's largest cities, it probably overlies a Hittite settlement that dates from 0441; 1400 BC. Conquered by Alexander the Great in 335334 BC, it was later a Roman military station. It came under the rule of the Abb 0101; sid dynasty at the end of the 7th century AD and changed hands intermittently until the late 14th century, when it fell into the hands of the Ramazan dynasty, a Turkmen group that remained influential even after the city's conquest by the Ottoman Empire in1516. Adana's prosperity has long derived from the fertile valleys behind it and its position as a bridgehead on the trade routes connecting Anatolia and the Arabian Peninsula.