Faustinopolis was an ancient city in the south of Cappadocia

Cappadocia

Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in Nevşehir Province.In the time of Herodotus, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying the whole region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine...

, about 20 km south of Tyana

Tyana

Tyana or Tyanna was an ancient city in the Anatolian region of Cappadocia, in modern south-central Turkey. It was the capital of a Luwian-speaking Neo-Hittite kingdom in the 1st millennium BC.-History:...

. It was named after the empress Faustina

Faustina the Younger

Annia Galeria Faustina Minor , Faustina Minor or Faustina the Younger was a daughter of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius and Roman Empress Faustina the Elder. She was a Roman Empress and wife to her maternal cousin Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius...

, the wife of Marcus Aurelius, who died there in a village, which her husband, by establishing a colony

Colonia (Roman)

A Roman colonia was originally a Roman outpost established in conquered territory to secure it. Eventually, however, the term came to denote the highest status of Roman city.-History:...

 in it, raised to the rank of a town under the name of Faustinopolis. (Jul. Capitol. M. Ant. Philos. 26.) Hierocles

Hierocles (author of Synecdemus)

Hierocles or Hierokles was a Byzantine geographer of the sixth century and the attributed author of the Synecdemus or Synekdemos, which contains a table of administrative divisions of the Byzantine Empire and lists of the cities of each...

 (p. 700) assigns the place to Cappadocia Secunda, and it is mentioned also in the Antonine

Antonine Itinerary

The Antonine Itinerary is a register of the stations and distances along the various roads of the Roman empire, containing directions how to get from one Roman settlement to another...

 and Jerusalem Itineraries. The town was close to the defiles of the Cilician Gates

Cilician Gates

The Cilician Gates or Gülek Pass is a pass through the Taurus Mountains connecting the low plains of Cilicia to the Anatolian Plateau, by way of the narrow gorge of the Gökoluk River. Its highest elevation is about 1000m....

, and was likely situated at modern-day Başmakçı

Basmakçi, Nigde

Başmakçı is a village in Niğde Province, Turkey. Başmakçı has been identified as the site of ancient Faustinopolis....

, Niğde Province

Nigde Province

Niğde Province is a small rural province in the southern part of Central Anatolia, Turkey. Population is 337.931 of which 100.418 live in the city of Niğde. The population was 348,081 in 2000 and 305.861 in 1990. It covers an area of 7,312 km²...

, Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

. Following the Muslim conquests

Muslim conquests

Muslim conquests also referred to as the Islamic conquests or Arab conquests, began with the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He established a new unified polity in the Arabian Peninsula which under the subsequent Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates saw a century of rapid expansion of Muslim power.They...

 and the subsequent Arab raids, the site was abandoned for the nearby fortress of Loulon.