Cilicia

[Acts 15:40-41] “But Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.”

Around the time of the New Testament, Cilicia was a province of the Roman Empire. It bordered Syria to the east, with parts of it extending into Syrian territory. It was bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south and Cappadocia to the north, and it neighbored the Kingdom of Antiochus to the west. Tarsus was its provincial capital. The region west of Tarsus was mountainous, while the eastern part was a fertile plain. Surrounded by mountains on three sides, the province had only one dangerous but vital pass called the Cilician Gates, which served as a crucial transportation corridor connecting modern-day Turkey and Syria.

The Cilician Gates is a mountain pass located 64 kilometers north of Tarsus. Since ancient times, it has been the essential route for crossing the Taurus Mountains from the coastal plain of Cilicia to the Anatolian plateau. The pass is situated in a narrow gorge of the Gökoluk River, with its highest point at an altitude of 1,000 meters. For thousands of years, it has served as a major commercial and military artery. Paul had to travel through this pass on both his second and third missionary journeys. In ancient times, crossing the Taurus Mountains took five days, and travelers along the route faced “dangers from rivers, dangers from bandits” (2 Corinthians 11:26).