Pamphylia in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Southern province of Asia Minor, bounded on the N. by Pisidia, from which it was separated by the Taurus range, W. by Lycia, E. by Cilicia, S. by the Levant. In Paul's time it with Lycia formed a province under the emperor Claudius. His "peril of robbers" was in crossing Taurus, the Pisidians being notorious for robbery. He visited Pamphylia at his first missionary tour, sailing from Paphos in Cyprus to Perga in Pamphylia on the river Cestrus, where Mark forsook him (Acts 13:13; Acts 15:38). They stayed only a short time then, but on their return front the interior "they preached the word" (Acts 14:24-25). Then they "went down (sea being lower than land) to Attalia," the chief seaport of Pamphylia. The minute accuracy of the geographical order, confirming genuineness, is observable, when, in coasting westward, he is said to "sail over the sea of Cilicia, and Pamphylia." Also Acts 13:13-14, "from Perga to Antioch in Pisidia," and Acts 14:24, "after Pisidia ... to Pamphylia," in returning to the coast from inland.