PYLAE CILICIAE
(Gülek Boğazi, İçel) Turkey.
One of the most famous mountain passes, this cleft
to the S of Mt. Tauros has been used by armies from
antiquity (Cyrus the Younger, Alexander) almost to the
present day. It also carried a great weight of commercial
traffic though this could be interrupted in winter (Cic.
Ep. ad Att. 5.21.14). The Via Tauri was improved and
the pass widened under Caracalla. A tablet recording his
work survives at the Cilician Gates today.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. P. Harper, “Podandus and the Via
Tauri,”
AnatSt 20 (1970) 149-53.
R. P. HARPER