The colonnaded street
Thirty-three Corinthian columns standing out of around two hundred, some with their capitals and the consoles that once carried imperial busts.
Seyfettin33 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Klaus-Peter Simon — CC BY 3.0 · Vassia Atanassova - Spiritia — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Vassia Atanassova - Spiritia — CC BY-SA 3.0
Thirty-three Corinthian columns still stand a few paces from the sea in an ordinary residential district west of Mersin, the visible remnant of a street that once carried around two hundred of them from the city gate down to the harbour. Several keep their carved capitals, and some bear stone consoles which, the inscriptions show, once held busts of emperors and senior officials. You take it all in from outside: the columns sit inside a high fence, a public path skirts them, and the beach is right behind. The story runs far longer than the colonnade. Colonists from Rhodes founded Soli around 700 BC on an older settlement mound, and the town produced the poet Aratus, author of the astronomical Phaenomena, and the Stoic philosopher Chrysippus. Alexander took it in 333 BC; in 67 BC Pompey, having cleared the sea of pirates, settled the ones who surrendered here and rebuilt the place under his own name, Pompeiopolis. Hadrian visited around AD 130 and paid for a bigger harbour. Then the earthquake of 525 finished everything in one blow, and the city never got up again. What survives is spread over four spots: the colonnaded street, by far the clearest; the settlement mound, about 22 metres high and 300 across, with traces on its slope of the theatre that 19th-century travellers described; the remains of a Roman bath and an aqueduct; and the two ancient harbour moles running out into the water in huge blocks some 200 metres apart, the western one roughly 160 metres long. Systematic excavations have run since 1999 under academic direction, and the long-announced plan is to turn the whole area into an open archaeopark, but until that happens the inside of the fence is off limits - expect a view of the columns, not a stroll among them. The significant finds, statues and figured capitals included, are in the Mersin Archaeological Museum. Be honest with yourself: half an hour is plenty, and it is at its best at dusk, when the light softens and the neighbouring beach fills with locals. The path is flat and pushchair-friendly, and Soli beach sits right alongside, so make this an evening stop paired with the seafront rather than an excursion in its own right. From central Mersin it is fifteen to twenty minutes by car on the coastal D400, or about half an hour on a Mezitli bus, and there is no charge of any kind. In August, Mersin's humidity is punishing and a shadeless daytime visit is hard work; spring and autumn are far kinder.
Thirty-three Corinthian columns standing out of around two hundred, some with their capitals and the consoles that once carried imperial busts.
Huge stone blocks running out into the sea from a harbour Hadrian enlarged, the western mole roughly 160 metres long.
A public path skirts the fenced columns with the beach right behind; dusk gives the best light for photos.
Viranşehir Mahallesi, Mezitli, Mersin
As an evening stop paired with the seafront, yes; as a dedicated trip, no. The fence keeps you a few metres from the columns and the photos are good, but there is nothing to wander through. For the real archaeology, head to the Mersin Archaeological Museum, where the finds from here are shown, or to Kızkalesi and Uzuncaburç further west.