EreÄŸli, Konya

Template: Infobox city in Turkey / Maintenance / County

Ereğli is a Turkish city in the province of Konya. The city with its 90,000 inhabitants ( 2004) located at the foot of the Taurus Mountains to about 1020 m.

History

Maybe Ereğli is identical to the Hittite Hupisna / Hubišna. In Hellenistic and Roman times, particularly in the city was under the name of Heraclea Kybistra an important place at the location of where the road leads to the Cilician gates into the mountains. She lay on common army ways and therefore was sacked more than once (including 805 and 832) by the Arab invaders of Asia Minor. In Byzantine times the city was part of Cappadocia. Short term: they belonged to the kingdom of Lesser Armenia as Kybistra. In the 11th century, the city was occupied by the Seljuk Turks, before it was temporarily conquered by the Mongols in the 13th century; since 1466 it belonged to the Ottoman Empire. In August 1097 the crusading army of the First Crusade, the combined forces of the Danischmendiden and the Emir of Cappadocia hit on the way to Antioch at Heraclea.

Kybistra is a titular of the Catholic Church.

Attractions

About twelve kilometers southeast of Ereğli is the rock relief of Ivriz, the Hittite relief best preserved in Turkey.