Road station

Corioco

Kızkalesi, ehem. Gorgos

Corioco is a garbled Korykos, at Kızkalesi, a harbour town of Rough Cilicia on a narrow spit, ringed, as Mela says, by harbour and sea. Nearby lies the famous Corycian cave, now Cennet Cehennem, a sanctuary of Zeus that later became a Christian shrine, and Strabo praises the saffron that grew there. Korykos sank to a village in its rivalry with Elaiussa Sebaste, but after Shapur destroyed both in 260 it flourished, with more than ten churches. The usurper Procopius came from here, and it held out as the last Christian port on this coast until 1448.

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