Anyone who remembers the opening part of the James Bond film "Skyfall" will certainly remember the Giaurdere Viaduct well, as this railway bridge formed the background of a dramatic chase in the film.

This part of the film, which incidentally represents the key scene for the entire plot of the film, made the otherwise almost forgotten railway bridge world-famous.

The Giaurdere Viaduct, also known as the Varda Viaduct, has often been photographed because of its bold proportions and the elegance of the rails, but other details about the important railway bridge of the famous Baghdad railway near Adana are hardly known. If you talk to the locals on site, you can still clearly hear the undertone of admiration and so the bridge is also called Alman Köprüsü (German viaduct) or Koca Küprü (big viaduct) by the local residents.

The building is an arch bridge made of natural stones

The Giaurdere Viaduct is part of the Konya-Adana railway line, is located southwest of the Haçıkırı railway station in the Karaisah district between km 307.106 and 307.278 as a section of the Baghdad railway, about 63 km from the Adana main railway station. With a length of only 172 m, the bridge has an extraordinary height of 98 m, making it the highest railway bridge in Turkey. The structure is built as an arched bridge made of natural stone with a total of eleven arches.

The three large main openings each have a width of 30 m, they are equipped with small arches for structural reasons. Both side parts consist of four arched bridges each with widths of 10 m or on the other side three times 12 m and one 6 m. The bridge stretches in a north-south direction and lies in a curve with a radius of 1,200 m.

From 1903 the Baghdad Railway was built under German direction from Konya in the central highlands of Turkey to Baghdad in Iraq. Crossing the Taurus Mountains with a peak height of 1,478 m was one of the major technical challenges. 37 tunnels and numerous bridges had to be built over a length of 20 km, with the Giaurdere Viaduct being the most well-known engineering structure. The Giaurdere Viaduct was designed by the German engineer Winkler, employee of the construction company Philipp Holzmann, and completed after his death by Nicholas Mavrogordato. The bridge crosses the deep valley of the river "Giaour Dere", from which the name of the viaduct is derived. The construction of the bridge began in 1905, the completion of the main construction measures took place in 1907. The commissioning of the railway line on this section took place in 1916. The official opening took place on February 18, 1917 by the Turkish Minister of War Enver Pasha, which slowly marked the hundredth anniversary of the completion approaching the railway line.

The construction project was financed under the leadership of Deutsche Bank. The railway line was built by the German construction company Philipp Holzmann, and other German companies such as Siemens, Friedrich Krupp, Borsig etc. were also involved in the delivery of the Baghdad railway.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether you go to Kıralan (Hacıkırı) more with the background of the "Skyfall" film fan or more interested in German engineering, the spectacular construction is always worth a detour to the Taurus, which is increasingly being used by tourism organizations included as a destination.

Please read as well:

Bosnian War and Destruction of the Stari most

Aquileia - floor mosaic in the cathedral