Geography

Akçatekir is in the rural area of Pozantı

Pozanti

Pozantı is a small city and a large district in Adana Province of Turkey, on the main road from the city of Adana up across the Taurus Mountains. Pozantı stands in the foothills, at the bottom of a rare pass through these high mountains...

 District which is a part of Adana Province. Distance to Pozantı is 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) and to Adana

Adana

Adana is a city in southern Turkey and a major agricultural and commercial center. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, 30 kilometres inland from the Mediterranean, in south-central Anatolia...

 is 85 km. Akçatekir is situated along the valley of Çakıt on Toros Mountains at an altitude of about 1250 metres (4,101 ft). The coordinates of the midtown are 36°32′N 38°42′E. The settled (winter) population is 2973 as of 2010

History

The earliest settlements date back to 200 years ago. A sheikh

Sheikh

Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...

 from Turkestan

Turkestan

Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and has never been in use to denote a single nation. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples...

 founded a village which is slightly out of the present town. After the roads were constructed, the town was established in its present location. There were two quarters, in Akça (western portion) villagers lived all year long and in Bürücek (eastern portion) city dwellers (mainly from Adana and Tarsus) spent the summers, escaping from the heat of Çukurova

Çukurova

Çukurova , historically known as Cilicia, is a geographic, economic and cultural region in south-central Turkey, covering the provinces of Mersin, Adana, Osmaniye and Hatay...

 (Cilicia).

During Egyptian revolt in the first half of the 19th century, Egyptian armies briefly occupied Akçatekir. Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt

Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt

Ibrahim Pasha was the eldest son of Muhammad Ali, the Wāli and unrecognised Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. He served as a general in the Egyptian army that his father established during his reign, taking his first command of Egyptian forces was when he was merely a teenager...

 built a fort in 1833 which is now known as the Bastion of İbrahim Pasha (İbrahim Paşa Tabyası).

Economy

Akçatekir had long been known as a summer resort town (so called yayla

Yayla (resort)

Yayla is a name given to the summer mountain resorts in Turkey.- Etymology :Nomadic herdsmen of Turkic origin used to call their herding locations by different names depending on the season. Yazlak, yaylak, güzlek and kışlak referred to herding locations of different seasons of the year...

). But now it is on the motorway and the transporatation to the cities at the south is a simple matter. So even in winters, people who work in the cities may prefer to settle in Akçatekir.