Varda Viaduct

Hikayemiz

The Varda Viaduct, aka Giaour Dere Viaduct, locally known as "Alman Köprüsü" or "Koca Köprü", is a railway viaduct situated at Hacıkırı village in Karaisalı district of Adana Province in southern Turkey. Designed and built by Imperial German engineers as part of the Baghdad Railway, the stone arch structure is 63km from Adana Central Station and 306km from Konya.Design and constructionThe building of the viaduct was coupled with the construction of the Ottoman-German project of Istanbul-Baghdad railway line to connect Berlin with Basra, then part of the Ottoman Empire, to enable direct supply of oil to German industry.The most difficult terrain on the route to overcome was the section at the Taurus Mountains between Konya and Adana, more specifically around the region of Belemedik, where in a distance of 12km 22 tunnels in a row had to be dug in twenty years.Financed by the German Deutsche Bank, the construction of the viaduct was commissioned to Philipp Holzmann & Cie, a renowned German construction company with experience in the field of major infrastructure works. The design and engineering work was carried out by the German Winkler and the Greek-Ottoman Nicholas Mavrogordato, who became responsible chief engineer after the death of Winkler. In 1903, the construction work force, consisting of German technical staff and thousands of multi-national workers, settled in a camp newly established in Belemedik, where all necessary facilities such as hospital, church, school, movie theatre and even mosque were built.