Adana's Geography

The location is described by the "Latitude 38 North and the Longitude 35,2 East". The
coastal plain cal-led "Çukurova" has been created by conversion of the delta which was
receiving the rivers Berdan, Çakıt, Körkün and Ceyhan, all saturated with alluvial
materials especially during the late winter and the spring rains. The lagoon, which was known
as the "Regma Sea", had by the time been shrinking by the forward movements of the delta.
Today, Akyatan, Agyatan, Yumurtalik and Tuzla Lagoons are still surviving but they are
incomparably smaller; these are called to be the grand-grand children of Regma, the mother
lagoon. Finally, the very well graded plain counts 452.540 hectares.
As it is now, Adana possesses a shore of about 160 km on the Mediterranean Sea.
River Seyhan, the Sarus of antique times, is the longest one spilling to the Mediterranean Sea
from Turkey. It is 560 km long and fed by a catchment area of 20.000 sq. km. Prior to the
construction of an earth-fill dam of 1,6 billion m3 accumulation capacity, which was inaugurated on the 8 April 1956, the river was every year and then flooding either latewinter or mid spring, leaving behind a very rich alluvial sedimentation over the entire plain.
No big floods have been recorded after the dam was put into operation but within a few
consecutive years it was ascertained that despite the possibility of an efficient irrigation the
yield was decreasing gradually. In fact, this was the result of giving an end to every year ref-
reshed reinforcement by the floodcarried alluvium and modern farming by consuming
adequate fertilizers was then adopted.
In the mean time, the irrigation net work enlargement has been a continual work carried out
by the State Hydraulic Department, which has finally come to such a level that almost the
entire plain is now irrigated from the same source.
The dam has served also as the reservoir for a hydro-power plant of three units, 20 MW each.
Immediately at the up streams of this reservoir, another dam and hydro-power plant, both
about 3 times bigger in capacity compared to the old dam and plant, called Çatalan, is now serving.