A train on the arches
Wait for the whistle and photograph the train crossing the curved stone viaduct from the terrace opposite.
Zeynel Cebeci — CC BY-SA 4.0 · MUSTAFA TOR — CC BY-SA 2.5 · Zeynel Cebeci — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Zeynel Cebeci — CC BY-SA 4.0
This is the bridge James Bond fell off. In the opening minutes of Skyfall (2012), Bond takes a bullet on the roof of a moving train and drops from the edge of a stone viaduct into the river far below, and that viaduct is no studio set but the real Varda Viaduct, some 65 km north-west of Adana in the Taurus mountains. Locals call it the German Bridge, or simply the Big Bridge: German engineers built it for the Berlin-to-Baghdad railway between 1907 and 1912, just before the First World War. It runs 172 m across the gorge and stands roughly 98 m above the Çakıt stream, the height of a thirty-storey building, and, oddest of all, it curves rather than runs straight, bending with the valley as if it had grown out of the rock. The point is that it is not a dead monument. The line is live; trains from Adana towards Konya, Kayseri and Ankara still cross it. The best moment of any visit is hearing a locomotive whistle somewhere up the valley and then watching it creep over the stone arches while you sit on the viewing terrace opposite with a Turkish breakfast tray in front of you. That terrace, with its plain wooden cafés serving breakfast and tea, is the place to photograph from; standing on the bridge itself you see nothing of its scale. Walking on the tracks is prohibited and genuinely dangerous, as trains appear round the bend with little warning, and every view worth having is from the side anyway. In practice you drive: about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half from central Adana on the Tarsus–Ankara motorway, off at the Çamalan exit, then the state road towards Karaisalı. The last stretch is a narrow, twisting mountain road, so take it slowly. There is parking near the bridge and the site is free at all hours. On paper, trains stop at Hacıkırı station about 500 m from the bridge, but timetables shift and services are sometimes suspended for months during track works, so do not plan a day around the train without checking the TCDD site first. On its own the viaduct is a short outing: an hour on the terrace, a photo with the train, and you are done. So pair it with Kapıkaya Canyon, about 2 km away. A pedestrian suspension bridge built in 2018 gives a short cut from the viaduct to the canyon entrance, from which an easy, well-kept path with railings on the steep parts follows the river between high rock walls; around half an hour's walking covers the finest section. It is no place for a pushchair but comfortable for children of school age on foot. Spring and autumn are best; in August the gorge is punishingly hot and the river close to dry, and in winter snow can close the mountain road.
Wait for the whistle and photograph the train crossing the curved stone viaduct from the terrace opposite.
The terrace's wooden cafés serve Turkish breakfast and tea opposite the viaduct James Bond fell from in Skyfall.
A pedestrian suspension bridge from 2018 gives a short cut from the viaduct to an easy riverside path between high rock walls.
Hacıkırı (Kıralan) village, Karaisalı district, Adana
No; on its own it is an hour's stop and you may arrive with no train in sight. It earns the trip when you add breakfast on the terrace and a walk in Kapıkaya Canyon, which turns it into a fine half-day in the mountains away from the city heat.
In theory yes, as Hacıkırı station is about 500 m from the bridge, but trains on this line are few and are sometimes suspended for months during track works, and a same-day return is not guaranteed. A car or an organised tour is the practical choice for most visitors.