Akşehir is a town and district of Konya Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. According to 2000 census, population of the district is 114,918 of which 63,000 live in the town of Akşehir. The town was known in the Roman and Byzantine empires as Philomelium or Philomelion (Φιλομήλιον) respectively.The town is situated at the edge of a fertile plain, on the north side of the Sultan Dagh.HistoryPhilomelion was probably a Pergamenian foundation on the great Graeco-Roman Highway from Ephesus to the east, and to its townsmen the Smyrniotes wrote the letter that describes the martyrdom of Polycarp. Cicero, on his way to Cilicia, dated some of his extant correspondence there; and the place played a considerable part in the frontier wars between the Byzantine emperors and the Sultanate of Rum. It became an important Seljuk town, and late in the 14th century passed into Ottoman hands. There Bayezit I of the Ottoman Empire is said by Ali of Yezd to have died after his defeat at the Battle of Ankara.
