Karataş

Karataş (Μέγαρσος, Mègarsos) is a municipality and district of Adana Province, Turkey. Its area is 862 km2, and its population is 23,499 (2022). The town itself has 10,293 inhabitants. It is on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, 47 km from the city of Adana, between the rivers Seyhan and Ceyhan, the Pyramos of Antiquity. Magarsos and Antiochia ad Pyramum The area has been inhabited from at least Hittite times and probably earlier. It was later part of the Assyrian province of Quwê (Que). By the time of the Greeks, who knew the city as Megarsos/Magarso, there was a port here at the mouth of the navigable Pyramos, supplying an important military and trading route into the plain of Cilicia, and also providing access to the sea for the river towns, like Mallus. In 333 BCE, just before the battle of Issus, Alexander the Great sacrificed here at a temple that, by interpretatio graeca, he took to be of Athena; the "Athena of Magarsos" who appears on Hellenistic coins has been diagnosed, from her pose and the attributes that surround her, to have Mesopotamian connections. Robin Lane Fox recognizes the origin of the cult site in the victories of Sennacherib, who instituted the shrine in 696 BCE following a sea battle with Greeks off the mouth of the river; he dedicated it to his martial goddess, Anat, or Ishtar. The Romans rendered Magarsos as Megarsus. The port was later conquered by the Arab armies during the growth of Islam and then by the Ottomans in 1517. Karataş was occupied by French troops during World War I. There are 43 neighbourhoods in Karataş District: Adalı Ataköy Bahçe Bebeli Çağşırlı Çakırören Çavuşlu Çimeli Çukurkamış Damlapınar Develiören Dolaplı Gölyaka Hacıhasan Hasırağacı Helvacı İnnaplıhüyüğü İsahacılı Kapı Karagöçer Karataş Karşıyaka Kemaliye Kesik Kiremitli Kırhasan Kızıltahta Konaklı Meletmez Orta Oymaklı Sarımsaklı Sirkenli Tabaklar Terliksiz Topraklı Tuzkuyusu Tuzla Yassıören Yemişli Yeni Yenimurat Yüzbaşı The ruins of churches, caravanserai, and an amphitheatre.