Kocakatran Natural Monument is a single cedar of Lebanon standing in the Cocakdere valley, within the Arslanköy quarter of Toroslar district in Mersin province. It was declared on 27 September 1994 and the protected ground is 386 square metres. The Directorate General of Nature Conservation and National Parks gives the tree's age as 647 years. It is 40 metres tall, with a girth of 7.5 metres and a trunk 2.45 metres across.
The monument lies inside the Cehennemderesi Wildlife Development Area, and wild goat, lynx, wild boar and squirrel live around it. The valley is steep and rocky, filled with cedar forest of every age, and the directorate writes that you will not see the wild goats but will feel them watching you.
There are no facilities at the site, and the Mersin directorate manages it directly.
It is 100 kilometres from central Mersin, approached through Çamlıyayla.
- Designated
- 27.09.1994
Visiting hours
- Visiting hours
- 08:00 - 20:00
When to go
- Climate
- Across Mersin as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 10.4 °C in January to 28.5 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in April, May, October and November; rainfall is heaviest in December (137 mm) and lightest in August (7 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
