Travel Guide Tarse (Tarsus)

Tarsus is a large city in the province of Mersin, not far from Adana. Because of the silting up, it is today located at about ten kilometers of the coasts. Probably of Hittite origin, like all the cities of Cilicia, Tarsus was in turn Assyrian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Armenian and Turkish. A great Stoic center, the city is best known for having housed one of the first Christian churches in Asia Minor. Tarsus is in fact the birthplace of Saint Paul, a Roman citizen and Jew named Saul at the time. On his way to Damascus, he was suddenly converted and returned to Tarsus proclaiming Jesus as the messiah.