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In the immediate vicinity of the Ceyhan-Iskenderun road, a little past the branching off of the Marash road, we come to the fortress of Toprak Kale on a large mound dominating the whole of the surroımding plain.
This building probably dates back to the Byzantines and to the Arabs, and was modified considerably by the Franks or Armenians. Note the double rectangular wall enclosing a small moat; the second walİ has two storeys, and the second storey has a passage with loop-holes. Large rooms have been preserved in the south-east and the north parts. The whole castle is bııilt of black basalt.
The basin of Lake Burdur is already desert-like in appearance.
Impressive bad lands are developing in the clay and sand of the late tertiary, and the whitish or colourcd layers can be scen on the section of the escarpment bordering the southern edge. The settlements on this side are hardly more than large oases hugging the banks of the small rivers from the highlands and nestling in gardens a few miles from the lake. Fiat roofs predominate in ali the villages and even in Burdur they out-number tile roofs. The slope of the Soğut Daglari to the north-west is fairly densely covered with scrub. The plains of Isparta and Atabey have more water and are not so forbidding.
The country between Lake Burdur and Eğridir constitutes the heart of Pisidia and contains the threc principal cities, Burdur, Isparta, and Eğridir as well as many good-sized country towns.
The three towns have experienced various changes of fortune. Burdur and Isparta, although occupying medieval or ancient sites, did not become important until the Ottoman period as small regional centres in the middle of their respeetive plains.
They are busy towns Burdur being more populous and bustling, Isparta more aristoeratic with large fortunes tied up in the carpet trade carpets have been vvoven in the villages of the region for almost a century. They have no interesting ancient remains.
Once ancient Adrianople, now the main city of the province, Edirne lies in Turkish Thrace at the mouth of two rivers, the Tunca and the Arda of Maritza (Meriç), and its population is approximately 95,000. The city still has an oriental aspect, with its narrow streets, bazaars and bridges.
The city was established by the Roman emperor Hadrian in 125 A.D., who called it Hadrianopolis or Adrianople. It is situated on the military routes of the Danube and the Bosphorus. Because of its strategical importance, Edirne became an objective for various powers. In the 12th century during the Third Crusade, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (Red Beard) set up his winter quarters here. During the reign of Sultan Murat I Edirne became the capital of the young Ottoman Empire in 1365, and it stayed like that until the conquest of Istanbul.
Between the years 1829-1878 the city fell into the hands of the Russians. In 1912 the Bulgars conquered the city, but in the following years it was re-captured. From 1922 Edirne has been Turkish.