COLOSSAE  , once the

great city of south-west Phrygia, was situated on rising ground (1150 ft.) on -the left bank of the Lycus (Churuk Su), a tributary of the Maeander, at the upper end of a narrow gorge 2 z M. long, where the river runs between cliffs from 50 to 6o ft. high . It stood on the great trade route from Sardis to Celaenae and Iconium, and was a large, prosperous city (Herod . 30; Xenophon, Anab. i . 2, § 6), until it was ruined by the foundation of Laodicea in a more advantageous position . The town was celebrated for its wool, which was dyed a purple colour called colossinus . Colossae was the seat of an early Christian church, the result of St Paul's activity at Ephesus, though perhaps actually founded by Epaphras . The church, to which St Paul wrote a letter, was mainly composed of mingled Greek and Phrygian elements deeply imbued with fantastic and fanatical mysticism . Colossae lasted until the 7th and 8th centuries, when it was gradually deserted under pressure of the Arab invasions . Its place was taken by Khonae (Khonas)—a strong fortress on a rugged spur of Mt . Kadmus, 3 M. to the south, which became a place of importance during the wars between the Byzantines and Turks, and was the birthplace of the historian, Nicetas Khoniates . The worship of angels alluded to by St Paul (Col. ii . 18), and condemned in the 4th century by a council at Laodicea, reappears in the later worship of St Michael, in whose honour a celebrated church, destroyed by the Seljuks in the 12th century, was built on the right bank of the Lycus .

See

Sir W . M . Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, vol. i .