About 100 kilometers west of Tarsus is Seleucia of Isauria. St. Thecla is said to have been buried in the cemetary near the ruined basilica in the near-by hill of Meremlik or Ayatekla just south of Silifke. The church was probably of fifth century construction.
According to The Acts of St.Paul and Thecla written in the second century A.D., St. Thecla was one of those who met Paul first at Iconium. She set up a nunnery just outside of Seleucia and was so effective in performing miraculous cures that the doctors of the town lost all their practice.
The entire Cukurova countryside is dotted with places of interest to historians, archeologists, artists, and students of early Christianity, in addition to those mentioned above which have a direct connection with the New Testament.
During the Third Crusade Frederick Barbarossa fell off his horse and drowned in the Cal-ycadnus (Goksu) at Silifke; the Girl’s Castle (Kiz Kalesi), built by Armenian kings in the twelfth century, is on an island visible from the road between Silifke and Mersin, and so are the few columns of the ruins of Soli, a city that used such corrupt Greek that even today when a person makes an error in grammar he is said to have committed a solecism. Soli was later rebuilt by Pompey and named Pompeiopolis.
Seleucia in Isauria,