Yumurtalık, Turkey

History

The port has a long history, dating to at least 2000 BC. Hittite pottery of the 17th century BC has been found in the mound of Zeytinbeli Höyük.

This Cilician port city is located on the Gulf of Issus, the modern Gulf of İskenderun. It was mentioned by Pausanias under the name Aegeae (Ancient Greek: Αἰγέαι, Aigéai), a name that appears also in its coinage. In Strabo's time it was a small port city.

Tacitus mentions Aegeae in his account of the war between Armenia and Rome on one side and Iberia and Parthia on the other. A Greek inscription of the Roman period has been discovered there, and under Roman dominion it was a place of some importance. It was organized as part of the province of Cilicia. Apollonius of Tyana (c. 15 – c. 100) conducted his early studies in Aegeae, when the city was at its cultural height.

It was Christianised at an early date, and while no longer retaining a residential bishop, remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church under the name of Aegeae. The Saints Cosmas and Damian are mentioned in Christian hagiography to have been twin brothers, physicians who practiced their profession in Aegeae, accepting no payment for their services, and eventually suffering martyrdom under Diocletian.

From the History section of Yumurtalık on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.