The ruins of the ancient city are very extensive, but they are deeply buried, and make little or no appearance above the surface except in the Dunuk Tash (popularly identified as the "Tomb of Sardanapalus," a monument which, however, was at Anchiale, not at Tarsus). This shapeless mass of concrete was probably the substructure of a Graeco-Roman temple, from which the marble coating has been removed. The modern town has considerable bazaars and trade; but the climate is very oppressive, owing to the proximity of vast marshes which occupy the site of the harbour and the lower part of the original Cydnus course. The river was diverted from its former course by Justinian in the 6th century. The emperor's intention was only to carry off the surplus waters in time of flood and prevent inundations in the city, not to deprive Tarsus of what was its chief pride and boast; but gradually the neglect of subsequent centuries allowed the channel in the city to become blocked by accumulation of soil, and now the whole body of water flows in the new channel east of the city, except what is drawn off by an artificial irrigation course to water the gardens on the western side of the city. The population in 1927 was 73,680.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—The literature regarding Tarsus is scanty, and few ancient inscriptions have been published. See W. B. Barker, Lares and Penates (1853) ; G. F. Hill in the British Museum Catalogue of Coins ; Six in Numismatic Chronicle (1884), pp. 152 ff., PP. 329 ff.; E. Babelon in the Catalogue Bibl. Nat., "Perses Achemenides"; the numismatic works of B. V. Head, F. Imhoof Blumer, etc. ; Waddington in Bulletin de Corr. Hell., vii., pp. 282 ff.; Ramsay, Cities of St. Paul (1907), PP. and "Cilicia, Tarsus and the Great Taurus Pass" in Geographical Journal PP. 357-410; R. Heberdey and A. Wilhelm, "Reisen in Kilikien" (in the Denkschriften d. kais. Akademie Wien, 1896, xliv.) , with works of other travellers, especially V. Langlois and Macdonald Kinneir. Callander in Journal of Hellenic Studies (1904), PP. 58 ff., studied Dion Chrysostom's two Tarsian Orations.