The identification is supported by ruins of walls encompassing an area of 40 x 60 metres and traces of barracks and cisterns on the hilltop dating to the 9th–12th centuries, as well as by an unobstructed view to Hasan Dağ, which is commonly identified with Mount Argaios, the second in the line of beacons that linked Loulon with the Byzantine capital Constantinople.
[1][2][3] Loulon appears to have been settled by the citizens of the nearby town of Faustinopolis (originally called Halala), which was apparently abandoned during the early Muslim attacks into Asia Minor.
[4][5] Ramsay and other writers assumed that the medieval name "Loulon" reflected the earlier name of Faustinopolis, but recent scholarship attributes its origin to the Hittite name "Lolas" for the local mountain range.
The Byzantine sources report that Michael III (r. 842–867) discontinued the system for a frivolous reason, but this is likely a tale invented to denigrate him by later writers, sympathetic to the succeeding Macedonian dynasty.
[14][15] It was not until 878, under Emperor Basil I the Macedonian (r. 867–886), that Loulon was definitely retaken by the Byzantines, when once again the garrison was left unpaid, as the Arab governor of Tarsus, Urkhuz, embezzled the money raised for their salary.