Konya  Konya () is a major city in south-western edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau and is the seventh-most-populous city in Turkey with a metropolitan population of over 2.1 million. Konya is a large and industrially developed city and the capital of Konya Province. The Konya region has been inhabited since the 3rd millennium BC. Known as Iconium during classical antiquity, the city was ruled successively by the Phrygian, Persian, Hellenistic and Roman civilizations. In the 11th century the Seljuk Turks conquered the area from the Byzantines, and Konya then became the capital of the Sultanate of Rum. Under the Seljuks, the city reached the height of its wealth and influence. Following the demise of Rum, Konya came under the rule of the Karamanids, before being taken over by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. After the Turkish War of Independence the city became part of the modern Republic of Turkey. Konya was known in classical antiquity and during the medieval period as ("Ikónion") in Greek (with regular Medieval Greek apheresis "Kónio(n)") and as in Latin. "Ikónion" is merely the Hellenization of an older Luwian name "Ikkuwaniya". By some the name "Ikónion" is commonly explained as a derivation from ("icon"), as an ancient Greek legend ascribed its name to the ""eikon"" (image), or the ""gorgon's (Medusa's) head"", with which Perseus vanquished the native population before founding the city. In some historic English texts, the city's name appears as "Konia" or "Koniah". Excavations have shown that the region was inhabited during the Late Copper Age, around 3000 BC. The city came under the influence of the Hittites around 1500 BC. Later it was overtaken by the Sea Peoples in around 1200 BC. The Phrygians established their kingdom in central Anatolia in the 8th century BC. Xenophon describes Iconium, as the city was called, as the last city of Phrygia. The region was overwhelmed by Cimmerian invaders c. 690 BC. It was later part of the Persian Empire, until Darius III was defeated by Alexander the Great in 333 BC. Alexander's empire broke up shortly after his death and the town came under the rule of Seleucus I Nicator.