Loulon

Loulon (Greek: Λούλον), in Arabic known as Lu'lu'a (Arabic: لولوة‎‎), was a fortress near the modern village of Hasangazi in Turkey.

The site was of strategic importance as it controlled the northern exit of the Cilician Gates. In the 8th–9th centuries it was located on the border between the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Caliphate and played a prominent role in the Arab–Byzantine wars of the period, changing hands several times.

The Scottish scholar W. M. Ramsay identified the fortress as a 300-metre high steep hill fortress west of the modern village of Porsuk in the Çakit valley, but modern scholars identify it with the 2,100-metre tall rocky hill some 13 km north of Porsuk, lying between the modern villages of Çanakçi and Gedelli. The identification is supported by ruins of walls encompassing an area of 40 x 60 metres and traces of barracks and cisterns on the hilltop dating to the 9th–12th centuries, as well as by an unobstructed view to Hasan Dağ, which is commonly identified with Mount Argaios, the second in the line of beacons that linked Loulon with the Byzantine capital Constantinople.

Loulon appears to have been settled by the citizens of the nearby town of Faustinopolis (originally called Halala), which was apparently abandoned during the early Muslim attacks into Asia Minor. Ramsay and other writers assumed that the medieval name "Loulon" reflected the earlier name of Faustinopolis, but recent scholarship attributes its origin to the Hittite name "Lolas" for the local mountain range.

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