Castabala or Kastabala or Hieropolis (Hierapolis ) was a city in Cilicia, near the Ceyhan River (ancient Pyramus). The name Castabala was probably of Luwian origin. Antiochos IV Epiphanes (r. 175–1BC) gave the name of “HIEROPOLIS” because of the name of the goddess Artemis Perasia (the Greek name of Kubaba) who worshiped in the city.
Strabo: Not far from this city [i.e. Tyana] are Castabala and Cybistra, towns still nearer to the mountain. At Castabala is the temple of the Perasian Artemis, where the priestesses, it is said, walk with naked feet over hot embers without pain. And here, too, some tell us over and over the same story of Orestes and Tauropolus, asserting that she was called "Perasian" because she was brought "from the other side." So then, in the prefecture Tyanitis, one of the ten above mentioned is Tyana .I am not enumerating along with these prefectures those that were acquired later, I mean Castabala and Cybistra and the places in Cilicia Tracheia.
The excavation yielded traces of the Late Neolithic-early Chalcolithic period. The city was not surrounded by the walls during the Roman Imperial Period (2nd century AD), and the first defense system was built in the late 4th century AD.
Sources:
- Strabo, Geography, 12.2.7
- Ferda Barut Kemirtlek, R. Eser Kortanoğlu, Antik Kastabala Kenti Kuzey Kilise Üzerine Gözlemler: Uzam, Mekan ve Anlamsal Üretim Döngüsü Observations on Ancient Castabala City North Church: Space, Anadolu Aristirmalari 23, 2020, pp. 261–288
- http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0006:entry=hieropolis-castabala&highlight=perasia%2Cartemis
- HIERAPOLIS-CASTABALA; (HIERAPOLIS-CASTABALA: The Urban Development in A.D. 1st to 3rd Centuries) By Ali Nadir ZEYREK http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/7243/1/A.N.Zeyrek.Hierapolis-Castabala.pdf