The historical anthroscape of Adana and the Fertile lands

Abstract

Adana the capital city of ancient Cilicia, is embraced by a land of fertile soils, traditional crops and unique knowledge, which has been transferred from the earliest to the latest people of the area since millenia. Some of the export and industrial major crops of the country are part of the local socio-economic structure since the Early Byzantine period, whereas some have been cultivated by the renovations performed during the Ottoman Dynasty. Cotton cultivation is the primary example practiced since Justinians period creating the cotton Anthroscape (the human reshaped basin-wide scale land unit and/or parts of it, explained in the introductory paper of this book) i.e., the lower part of the Seyhan (Saros) Basin (the lower part of the Anthroscape) with particular soil inherent properties and use of the traditional water resources, that have developed via the long-standing historical good management practices. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011.