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Petra

Gimir

Petra is a slip for Perta, a town with a Celtic or Lycian name that the geographer Ptolemy already lists. It lay on the mound just east of Gimir, at the foot of the Ballık Dağ, a site confirmed by inscriptions found there among plentiful ancient and Byzantine stones. Cults of Zeus and Apollo show that Greek influence stayed strong in Roman times, and the town was a bishop's seat from the Council of Constantinople in 381 into the 12th century. In middle Byzantine times it lay on the northern route from the Cilician Gates to Amorion, described by the Arab geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih.

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