estia (Missis) on the
Pyramus. North of the road between the two last places were
Sision-Flaviopolis (Sis), Anazarbus (Anazarba) and Hierapolis-Kastabala
(Budrum); and on the coast were Soli-Pompeiopolis, Mallus (Kara-tash),
Aegae (Ayash), Issus, Baiae (Piyas) and Alexandria ad Issum
(Alexandretta). The great highway from the west, on its long rough
descent from the Anatolian plateau to Tarsus, ran through a narrow pass
between walls of rock called the Cilician Gate, Ghulek Boghaz. After
crossing the low hills east of the Pyramus it passed through a masonry
(Cilician) gate, Demir Kapu, and entered the plain of Issus. From that
plain one road ran southward through a masonry (Syrian) gate to
Alexandretta, and thence crossed Mt. Amanus by the Syrian Gate, Beilan
Pass, to Antioch and Syria; and another ran northwards through a masonry
(Amanian) gate, south of Toprak Kaleh, and crossed Mt. Amanus by the
Amanian Gate, Baghche Pass, to North Syria and the Euphrates. By the
last pass, which was apparently unknown to Alexander, Darius crossed the
mountains prior to the battle of Issus. Both passes are short and easy,
and connect Cilicia Pedias geographically and politically with Syria
rather than with Asia Minor. Another important road connected Sision
with Cocysus and Melitene. In Roman times Cilicia exported the
goats'-hair cloth, Cilicium, of which tents were made.

The Cilicians appear as Khilikku in Assyrian inscriptions, and in the
early part of the first millennium B.C. were one of the four chief
powers of western Asia. It is generally assumed that they had previously
been subject to the Syro-Cappadocian empire; but, up to 1909 at all
events, "Hittite" monuments had not been found in Cilicia; and we must
infer that the "Hittite" civilizations which flourished in Cappadocia
and N. Syria, communicated with each other by passes E. of Amanus and
not by the Cilician Gates. Under the Persian empire Cilicia was
apparently governed by tributary native kings, who bore a name or title
graecized as Syennesis; but it was officially included in the fourth
satrapy by Darius. Xenophon found a queen in power, and no opposition
was offered to the march of Cyrus. Similarly Alexander found the Gates
open, when he came down from the plateau in 333 B.C.; and from these
facts it may be inferred that the great pass was not under direct
Persian control, but under that of a vassal power always ready to turn
against its suzerain. After Alexander's