Cilicia is a significant research topic in order to analyse cultural and religious assimilation processes
that affected Asia Minor in the Hellenistic period. Thanks to its geographical position, Cilicia was
a natural crossroads between different cultural traditions but, due to its geomorphological features,
it kept over the centuries its Anatolian background. The interaction between these two attitudes
emerges especially in Hellenistic times, contributing to the development of a stratified religious
identity, as well as to the architectural definition of worship places.
This paper analyses the rise and the development of major Cilician sanctuaries, both urban and extraurban.
In spite of the overall lack of archaeological records, the literary, epigraphic and numismatic
evidence gives information about main civic cults, primarily devoted to Athena, worshipped in
Seleucia on the Kalykadnos river, Elaiussa, Soloi, Aigeai and Mallos.
In relation to extra-urban sanctuaries (located in Olba, Magarsos and Kastabala and dating back
to pre-Hellenistic times), the Seleucid kings, especially Antiochus IV Epiphanes, enhanced both
architectural renewal and assimilation of worships in Hellenic forms. More complex is the case
of the Cilician cave known as Korykion Antron, located in the inland of the ancient Korykos; it
combines different temple typologies (Doric prostyle temple and cult cave), widespread in the
Olbian territory. These small cult sites were gathering-places for rural population and some of them
probably played as well a role of border sanctuaries.
