It is located 90 km from Eshab-ı Kehf Kilikya Hotel in the Tarsus district of Mersin. Eshab-Kehf Cave in Tarsus is known as the place where seven young believers "sleep", who are accepted and sacred in different religions as the "Seven Sleepers". There are other places in Anatolia where the Seven Sleepers are believed to sleep.
Who were they, why did they put them to sleep?
Seven Sleepers is widely known in Turkey. But the experiences of the seven young people were told in different ways among the public. It is natural that it has changed as it was passed from language to language and from generation to generation. The main theme common to all narratives is the seven young people's stance against the oppression of religious belief and their pacifist resistance.
In the year 250, the "official religion" of the Roman Empire was pagan, polytheistic. The spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire was not tolerated by the state administration. The hunt for Christians was constant. Seven young people who embraced Christianity took shelter in a cave to escape from these pressures and fell into a deep sleep.
When the administrators learned that the young people had taken refuge in the cave, they blocked the mouth of the cave with huge stones to bury them alive.