Narlıkuyu is a small coastal town in Mersin Province

Mersin Province

The Mersin Province is a province in southern Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast between Antalya and Adana. The provincial capital is the city of Mersin and the other major town is Tarsus, birthplace of St Paul...

, 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...

. (The name of the town means pomegranate well.)

Geography

Narlıkuyu at 36°27′N 34°7′E is situated on the Mediterranean

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

 coast, 65 kilometres (40.4 mi) south west of Mersin

Mersin

-Mersin today:Today, Mersin is a large city spreading out along the coast, with Turkey's second tallest skyscraper , huge hotels, an opera house, expensive real estate near the sea or up in the hills, and many other modern urban...

. It is a part of Silifke

Silifke

-Antiquity:Located a few miles from the mouth of the Calycadnus River, Seleucia was founded by Seleucus I Nicator in the early 3rd century BCE, one of several cities he named after himself. It is probable that there were already towns called Olbia and Hyria and that Seleucus I merely united them...

 district which is in turn a part of Mersin Province. It is on the Mersin Antalya highway between two districts of Mersin; Erdemli

Erdemli

Erdemli is a town and district of Mersin Province in the Mediterranean region of Turkey, west of the city of Mersin.-Geography:The district extends from the Mediterranean coastal plain, the largest agricultural area in Mersin Province, to high in the Taurus Mountains where there is forest, and...

 and Silifke.

The town has many popular fishing restaurants, located around a small bay famous for its unusually cool and fresh water, fed by underground freshwater streams.

Administration

The township was established in 1994 with the fusion of several small villages. The population is 2798 (2010 est.)

History

The name of Narlıkuyu was Porto Calamie during Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

. A small 4th century building, once part of a bath and baptism complex financed by Poimenios of Corycus

Corycus

Corycus was an ancient city in Cilicia Trachaea, Anatolia, located at the mouth of the river called Şeytan deresi; the site is now occupied by the town of Kızkalesi , Mersin Province, Turkey.-The city:...

, survives to the present.(Corycus, now called Kızkalesi

Kızkalesi

Kızkalesi is a town in Mersin Province, Turkey. The town, known in Antiquity as Corycus or Korykos , is named after the ancient castle built on a small island just facing the town.- Geography :...

, is 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) east of Porto Calamie.)

An inscription at the building's entrance reads:

Dear Visitor, if you wonder who has discovered this miraculous water, know that he is Poimenios, the friend of the emprerors and the honest administrator of the holy islands..

Probably the said emprerors were Arcadius

Arcadius

Arcadius was the Byzantine Emperor from 395 to his death. He was the eldest son of Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the Western Emperor Honorius...

 (378-408) and Honorius

Honorius (emperor)

Honorius , was Western Roman Emperor from 395 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the eastern emperor Arcadius....

 (384-423). The holy islands are the Princes' Islands

Princes' Islands

The Princes' Islands , are a chain of nine islands off the coast of Istanbul, Turkey, in the Sea of Marmara. The islands also constitute the Adalar district of Istanbul Province...

 of Marmara

Sea of Marmara

The Sea of Marmara , also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, and in the context of classical antiquity as the Propontis , is the inland sea that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, thus separating Turkey's Asian and European parts. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Black...

.

The building is now a museum. The floor mosaic depicts three Graces

Charites

In Greek mythology, a Charis is one of several Charites , goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility. They ordinarily numbered three, from youngest to oldest: Aglaea , Euphrosyne , and Thalia . In Roman mythology they were known as the Gratiae, the "Graces"...

; Aglaia, Euphrosyne

Euphrosyne (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Euphrosyne In Greek mythology, Euphrosyne In Greek mythology, Euphrosyne (Εὐφροσύνη; was one of the Charites, known in English also as the "Three Graces". Her best remembered representation in English is in Milton's poem of the active, joyful life, "L'Allegro". She is also the...

 and Thalia

Thalia (grace)

In Greek mythology, Thalia was one of the three Graces or Charites with her sisters Aglaea and Euphrosyne, and a daughter of Zeus and the Oceanid Eurynome or the hour Eunomia...

, and a couple of partridges and doves. The local name of the mosaic is Üç Güzeller (Three beauites) The mosaic refers to the mitological story of baptism of Aphrodite

Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....

.