An ancient harbor city located in what is today the Yumurtalık district of the Mediterranean province of Adana will be restored and converted into an open-air museum, officials announced this week.

Adana Museum Director Kazım Tosun told the Anatolia news agency that the ancient city called Aigeai was believed to have been built by the successors of Macedonian King Alexander the Great who reigned from 336 B.C. to 323 B.C., during which time he conquered the Persian Empire, including Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Gaza, Egypt, Bactria and Mesopotamia, extending the boundaries of his empire as far as the borders of the Punjab.

Tosun said the Yumurtalık district boasts a rich history. Various ancient relics unearthed in different parts of the region are now being collected in Atatürk Park, and an inventory of these relics will be drawn up after the process of compilation is complete. Work to convert the region into an open-air museum will then get under way, he said.

Yumurtalık is a district that was built upon the ruins of older civilizations that inhabited the Cilicia region. Macedonian commanders built the city in the final quarter of the fourth century B.C. after Alexander's army defeated the Persian army under the command of King Darius III at the Battle of Issus in 333 B.C.