The ruins of Tyana are at Kemerhisar, three miles south of Nigde ; there are remains of a Roman Aqueduct and of cave cemetries. The surrounding plain was known as Tyanitis. It was in a strategic position on the road to Syria via the Cilician Gates . It is the reputed birthplace of Apollonius Of Tyana .
Tyana is probably the city referred to in Hittite archives as ''Tuwanuwa''. In Greek legend the city was first called Thoana, because Thoas, a Thracian king, was its founder ( Arrian , "Periplus Ponti Euxini", vi); it was in Cappadocia , at the foot of Taurus Mountains and near the Cilician Gates ( Strabo , XII, 537; XIII, 587). Under Caracalla the city became ''Antoniana colonia Tyana''. After having sided with Queen Zenobia of Palmyra it was captured by Aurelian in 272 , who would not allow his soldiers to sack it, allegedly because Apollonius appeared to him, pleading for its safety. In 371 , Valens created a second province of Cappadocia, of which Tyana became the metropolis.
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