Bor is a town and district of Niğde Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey, 14km north of the city of Niğde, on a high plain (altitude 1100m). The district's population is 59,919 of which 38,320 live in the town of Bor.The area is situated just north of the Taurus Mountains, not far from the Cilician Gates (Gülek Boğazı), the mountain pass leading to Cilicia and Syria, and has long been a place of commercial and military importance.EtymologyThe Hittites and Assyrians gave the area the name Tuwanuwa. In the times of Cyrus the Younger and Alexander the Great it was named Dana and then by the Romans, Tyana, (Θυάνα in Ancient greek). The remains of these civilizations can be found in the village of Kemerhisar. Bor is a more modern settlement nearby.HistoryThe plain has been settled since the time of the Hittites, and subsequently controlled by Assyrians, Phrygians, Persians and Ancient Macedonians. The Romans (and from 395 AD onwards Byzantium) built the ancient city of Tyana the most southern-most centre of Cappadocia. During the Byzantine period the town was the eastern Mediterranean region’s most important Christian centre, as indicated also by its former Turkish name of Kilisehisar (‘City of the Churches’).