Misis lies twenty-seven kilometres from Adana, on the bank of the Ceyhan river, the ancient Pyramos, and on an old road. Among the buildings still standing there is a stone bridge of nine arches.
The history of the place begins with the mound it sits on, which will probably be dated to the Neolithic, about 6000 BC. Mopsus, one of the heroes of Troy, is said to have founded Misis.
The site passed in turn to the Hittites, the Assyrians, the Macedonians and the Seleucids, and it was an important centre in the Roman and Byzantine periods. From the eighth century AD it was built up again and saw a great many battles. After 1517 it came under Ottoman rule.
Besides the bridge, what survives today includes mosaics of the fourth century AD, the walls on the acropolis and the remains of the city, the Havraniye caravanserai built in 1542, and a cubic single-domed mescit of 1648.
The history of Sirkeli Höyük, between Misis and Ceyhan, also reaches back to the Neolithic. Two reliefs cut into a rock at the edge of that mound are thought to be a Hittite road marker.
Misis can be reached by any of the vehicles running from Adana to the district of Ceyhan, since it stands on the Ceyhan river.
Getting there
- Access
- It stands on the Ceyhan river, so any vehicle bound for the Ceyhan district of Adana will get you there.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Adana as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 9.6 °C in January to 28.8 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in April, May, October and November; rainfall is heaviest in December (125 mm) and lightest in August (9 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
