"Çukurova's land of peanuts..."
Osmaniye is located in High Çukurova, on the east side of the Ceyhan River with impossibly wide backlands. Osmaniye has abundant water due to the existence of the Ceyhan River, Hamıs, Karaçay, Kesiksuyu and Sabun Rivers. Also, as Çukurova is at the junction of roads leading to the east, the region is quite busy. Çukurova has rich agricultural soil and large forests. Osmaniye also includes the Karatepe and Aslantaş Outdoor Museum and Ancient cities.
Highlights
Toprakkale was built during the early ages to act as a checkpoint for the Amanos/Demirkapi passage which connect Syria with Çukurova. It is located on a 75m high rock formation and added hill which presides over the southern passage and the Ceyhan, Osmaniye, Dörtyol road junction. Toprakkale consists of an interior castle and outer walls which surround it. The castle walls are built of rows of rubblestone and a layer of black basalt stone. The interior castle’s surrounding walls have mostly survived time nut the upper sections are in ruins. To the north of the castle, along the Adana route, is the ancient Kınık city (Öranşar) ruins.
The Zorkun Plateau: Located to the southeast of Osmaniye, these plateaux are on the skirts of the Nur mountain and are reached following a 26km long tarmac road. During the plateaux season public transport, minibuses and taxis are available between Osmaniye and the Zorkun plateau. The Oluk Bası plateau is loacted at the 16th kilometre and has extremely quaint and pretty plateau houses made of wood nestling amongst pine trees. The Zorkun plateau is spread over a very large land. It is surrounded by pine and juniper trees and there are many villas and houses with interesting architecture. The Zorkun plateau’s substructure is nearly complete and a temporary health clinic and gendarme station are on hand during the summer. The plateau is popular with people from Osmaniye, Ceyhan and Kadirli and has; grocery stores, outdoor cafés and restaurants, a butcher, grocer and a bakery. The plateau also has eating-drinking and shopping amenities. The locals spend the summer in their plateau homes.
Cuisine
The most important ingredient of the local food is bulgur rice. Therefore, most of the dishes are made from it; stuffed meatballs, lentil meatballs, raw meatballs, kısır, sarmaiçi, bulgur pilaf, batırık, etc... Other main dishes include tirşik (beet), togga, çiçcice (tomato pilaf), baked beans, chickpeas, stuffed cabbage, stuffed aubergines, yüksük soup, malota soup, tarhana soup, and various vegetable dishes and meat kombe. Dried kombe and syrup is made at the Ramadan Holiday.
History
