"PERGE – PAMPHYLIAN METROPOLIS" Aksu by mtncorg

The city of Perge dates to at least the 14 C BC through Hittite records. The town is about 20 km inland near the river Aksu – earlier known as the Kestros. Boats could come up the river while the many pirates whom infested this stretch of the Mediterranean coast line (see *Olimbos) had a harder time. Persians gained control of the area in 546 BC but were booted out by Alexander in 333 BC. The town then fell under Seleucid rule until the Romans came in 188 BC. Most of the surviving ruins date from the 2nd to 3rd CE period of the Pax Romana. With the establishment of Christianity in the 4th C, Perge became a Christian center through the 5th C. Rebellions and Arab raids sent most of the locals to live in nearby Antalya by the mid 7th C though some remained behind into Selҫuk times.

Paul twice visited Perge in the company of Barnabas on his second missionary journey – his first had been a visit to the Arab kingdom of Nabatea shortly after his Damascene conversion. On his journey with Barnabas, Acts recounts that Paul journeyed through Perga – Acts 13:13-14 – en route to Pisidian Antioch over the Taurus Mountains to the north. At the end of their trip to Pisidia – 46 CE – they returned through Perga again where they preched before sailing back to Antioch Orontes through the port at Attalia (Antalya) – Acts 14: 24-26. Perge would become a metropolitan see during early Christian times with Pergan bishops being noted in attendance at eleven different Ecumenical Councils from 312 until 870.