According to legend, the city took its name from an ancient Greek seer, Mopsos.
It was located on the banks of the river Pyramos (Ceyhan) in Cilicia (southern Turkey, north of Cyprus) and as shown in the photo it controlled the strategic passage of the river and essentially the passage from Syria to Anatolia just before the alley in the mountain range of Taurus.
For this reason, it became a conflict ground between the Saracens and the Romans.
It is reported that he changed hands several times. In the great advance of the Arabs, the emperor Heraklion leveled it in order to create a neutral zone between Syria and Anatolia.
Eventually, the Arabs established themselves in the area and turned it into a base for the annuals in Anatolia. (8th-9th century AD)
In the 10th-century, epic battles and sieges took place in front of the mighty city walls. Generals of the range of Nikiforos Fokas, Ioannis Tsimiskis, and Saif al-Daula participated.
In fact, the latter even preached Jihad in front of the organized war machine of Byzantium. In 965 Nikiforos Fokas managed to conquer it after an agreement with the defenders.
The city began to decline during the years of the Crusades due to the successive wars in the region (Byzantium-Armenian Cilicia - Crusaders - Seljuk Turks)
The photo shows part of the excavations and the bridge of strategic importance on the river Pyramos. In the town of Misis as it is called today, there is also a museum with Byzantine mosaics.