PERSIANS IN CAPPADOCIA 6th to 4th CENTURIES B.C.

Unlike Lycia, Lydia and many of the other ancient countries of Anatolia, Cappadocia was not named after a people. The name is thought to have derived from the ancient Persian word tukha or dukha, and to mean the Land of Beautiful Horses. The form Katpatuka appears in an inscription listing the countries which paid tribute to Persia under Darius I (522 – 486 BC) carved on the Behistun cliffs at the end of the sixth century BC. The horses of Cappadocia were indeed famous, and the both Assyrians and Persian empires received horses and mules in tribute from here.