Bozyazı

Bozyazı is a remote coastal district with the Taurus Mountains as a backdrop; The roads over the mountains or along the coast from either direction are very difficult to drive making Bozyazı too far from large cities or the established centres of tourism to attract many visitors, so the district is quiet and unspoilt.

The sea is clean and Bozyazı is home to an important colony of the endangered Mediterranean monk seal.

These are quiet places where the people are conservative; old and young spend the evenings sitting by the sea spitting out sunflower and pumpkin seeds; there is little nightlife, maybe the odd restaurant with a piano player.

They are being excavated by a team from Mersin University who have found traces of occupation going back to the Hellenistic period of the 4th century BC, when Nagidos was an outpost of Rhodes and Samos, a small port established to trade goods from Egypt and Cyprus.

The town was subsequently controlled by Ptolemaic Empire, Ancient Romans, Byzantines, Cilician Armenia and Seljuk Turks.

Nagidos inscription in Mersin Archaeological Museum
Districts of Mersin
Districts of Mersin