Attalia (Ἄτταλεια) was a prominent port city in the Roman province of Pamphylia on the southern coast of Asia Minor (modern Antalya, Turkey). Founded by Attalus II Philadelphus of Pergamum (c. 150 BC), it served as the main harbor of the region. It appears once in the New Testament (Acts 14:25), as Paul and Barnabas sailed from there back to Antioch after completing their first missionary journey.
Attalia was the departure point for Paul and Barnabas' return home after the first missionary journey — after planting churches across Galatia, experiencing persecution, and seeing God's hand in extraordinary ways. The mundane detail of sailing from a port city is rich with theological freight. Mission is cyclical: going, planting, enduring, returning, reporting, resting, sending again. Acts 14:26–28 records that when they arrived in Antioch, "they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them." The port of Attalia marks the transition from mission field to community — the place where the apostles came home to tell the story of God's faithfulness. Every missionary needs an Antioch to return to, a community to report to, a people to celebrate God's work with.