Antakya

Antakya is the capital of Hatay Province, a part of Turkey since 1939. It's best known as the site of Antioch-on-the-Orontes, described in the Bible as one of the first Christian communities. In 2022 the city population was 368,000, but in 2023 Hatay suffered a major earthquake and has not yet fully recovered.

After the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, Seleucus I Nicator won the territory of Syria, and he proceeded to found four "sister cities" in northwestern Syria, one of which was Antioch, a city named in honor of his father Antiochus (very passionate about founding cities, he is reputed to have built in all nine Seleucias, sixteen Antiochs, and six Laodiceas).

This particular Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the Near East. The city was the capital of the Seleucid Empire until 63 BC, when the Roman Empire took control. Under the Romans it was the 4th largest city in the empire and the seat of the governor of the province of Syria Palæstina.

This city is famous since forever, and a point of pilgrimage, as an important centre of early Christianity, with some of the first non-hidden churches. Today it takes pride in being a truly multicultural place, where you can hear prayers in many different tongues. Many sects of Christianity (Greek Orthodoxy, Syriac Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism to name a few) and Islam (Sunni and Alawi), as well as Judaism, are all represented with their dedicated temples in Antakya.

Ethnically, Arabs constitute almost half of the population and most of the rest are Turks. Arabs in the city speak the Levantine (Shami) dialect of Arabic, which is also prevalent in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.

Antakya rests in the hammock-like valley of the Asi River, also known as the Orontes, with mountains rising rather steeply and pine-covered immediately to its southeast, and more distantly and barren in the northern outskirts. At summer nights, the river valley brings over a much-appreciated breeze from the not very far but invisible sea.

An administrative reform in 2014 divided the southern neighbourhoods and suburbs of the city into a separate Defne municipality, limiting Antakya municipality to the city centre and the north. However, for all intents and purposes they form a single city, which is covered in its entirety in this article.

In February 2023, Antakya was hit by a series of devastating earthquakes. Many of the city's buildings, landmarks, hotels and restaurants were badly damaged or collapsed, and most of the surviving inhabitants were evacuated.

While the road infrastructure and bus services to the city were restored, as of 2025, the city is still rebuilding as many of its residents continue to live in temporary tent or shipping container homes. Tourism facilities may be limited.

36°12′11″N 36°10′8″E

Map of Antakya

36.36277836.2822221 Hatay Airport (HTY  ^IATA). Turkish Airlines fly three times a day from Istanbul (IST) and twice from Istanbul (SAW), taking 1 hr 50 min. One flight a day is from Ankara. Pegasus also fly twice a day from Istanbul (SAW). No international flights but Istanbul has excellent connections. Hatay airport has been patched up after the earthquake but has only basic facilities.  (updated Jun 2026)

The airport is 25 km north of city centre. The Havas bus is supposed to meet flights and run downtown, taking an hour to the stop at İnönü Cd 30, near the main square and Hacı Durmuş bridge. Good luck with that.

Otherwise look for a dolmuş or taxi.

The nearest station is in Iskenderun, but trains from Adana and Mersin remain suspended because of interminable track works.

Buses from Istanbul run every couple of hours and take 14 hours via Ankara, Niğde, Adana and Iskenderun. Buses no longer run from Beirut or Aleppo.

Bus lines are Metro Turizm, Kamil Koç (now part of Flixbus) and Has Turizm. For online tickets select "Hatay" as the destination, bus websites don't recognise "Antakya".

36.231436.13632 Antakya Otogarı is the intercity bus station, on the bypass 5 km northwest of city centre. It was badly damaged by the earthquake, and as of June 2026 is not yet rebuilt, with makeshift facilities. Dolmuşes run downtown.

From Istanbul or Ankara take the motorway (toll) to Adana then O-52 east onto E91, a fast divided highway. It joins D817 south of İskenderun, to twist and turn over Belen Pass (the ancient Syrian Gates) through the Amanos Mountains and join D825.

A scenic detour is to follow the coast road south from İskenderun via Arsuz, Çevlik and Samandağ then take D420 east to Antakya.

From Gaziantep, quickest is to take D400 or O-52 (toll) west to Nurdağı to join D825, which heads south across the dusty plains east of the mountains. Or you could could go south on D850 to Kilis, then follow D410 along the Syrian border to join D825.

From Latakia in Syria take Highway 1 to Yayladağı border post where it becomes E91 / D825, and from Aleppo take M45 to Cilvegözü border post where it becomes D420. You'll need your personal and vehicle documents sorted in advance.

The centre is walkable and all points of interest are close to each other. For the sights in the east, you will need transportation — they aren't very far from the centre and the route is flat, but the walk is dreary amidst industrial areas and lacking shade. For the sites further in the outlying areas, a car at your disposal is the best (and often the only) choice.

Parking space is hard to come by in the centre, and when you do, it's charged 9 TL (Oct 2022) an hour. The sites in the east all have adjacent car parks, free of charge.

Public bus line 401 is a frequent service along D420 to Samandağ, all the way to its seaside suburb Deniz.

• 36.202636.16031 Cumhuriyet Meydanı, Republic Square, is the roundabout at the centre of town. It was surrounded by civic buildings such as town hall, all destroyed in the earthquake. The statue of Atatürk has been restored to his central plinth but the rest is a gritty work in progress. Ata Bridge across the River Orontes is a drab modern structure, the ancient bridge was demolished circa 1960.
• Council for Culture and Arts Center has been rebuilt north side of the roundabout. It's on the site of the former Assembly of the short-lived Hatay state, but was already in use as a cultural centre before the original building was lost in the earthquake.
• 36.199336.15692 Büyük Antakya Parkı or Atatürk Park is a peaceful bosky space by the river, open 24 hours.
• 36.20167636.1656373 Habib-i Nejjar Mosque, Kurtuluş Cd (corner of Kemal Paşa Cd). This was rebuilt after it was wrecked by earthquakes in 1853 and again in 2023, so what you see now is a squeaky-clean version of 2026. It's on the site of an ancient pagan temple and became one of the first Christian churches, and from the 7th century one of the first mosques in the region, flipflopping between those religions as control of the city ebbed back and forth. Habib Al-Najjar ("the beloved carpenter") in legend lived 5-35 AD. When the Apostles visited Antioch they cured his son and he converted to Christianity, but was slain by the townsfolk for preaching that creed. Islamic tradition also reveres him for worshipping the true God, as described in Qur'an, sura Ya-Sin (36), ayah 20-27. His tomb is in the basement, and four sarcophagi are said to be Apostles or Islamic prophets who died nowhere remotely near Antioch. Free.  (updated Jun 2026)
• Kurtuluş Cd stretches north and south from Habib-i Nejjar Mosque. It's the old spine of Antakya, overlying the Roman colonnades of Herod Street, and was formerly lined with historic buildings. Many collapsed in 2023: here and there a facade has been preserved but it's a sad sight with crumbling walls and rubble underfoot.
• 36.21136.17434 Necmi Asfuroğlu Archaeological Museum, Süreyya Halefoğlu Cd 64. Daily 08:30-17:00. They were preparing to build a hotel in 2009 when they found remains of ancient Antioch, so they mounted the hotel on steel pillars and created a museum below. There's an ancient road pavement, a ruined bathhouse, and Roman floor mosaics.  (updated Jun 2026)
• 36.20936136.1780565 Church of Saint Peter, Senpiyar Cd, ☏ +90 326 225 1568. Daily 08:30-17:00. One of the oldest churches of Christianity, where St Peter preached, though its earliest structures are from 4th / 5th century. It's a cave on a cliff face recessing 13 m. Around 1100 the Crusaders enlarged the cave and added a stone façade, which was rebuilt in 1863. The statue of St Peter above the altar is from 1932. Adult €8.  (updated Jun 2026)

• Charon, the boatman who rows you across the Styx to Hell, is a 4 m tall rock relief on the hillside 300 m north of the Church of St Peter. It was built in the 2nd century BC to protect the city from plague, but left incomplete when the plague subsided. Don't accept local children as "guides", they're hirelings of Charon piqued at his monument's abandonment.
• 36.208936.18236 Demir Kapı or Bab-ı Hadid, Iron Gate, is the ruins of a dam built 555 AD to control flash-flooding from the stream in the ravine. It had an innovative arch design, and city walls were added on top. It was rebuilt in medieval times but was derelict by 1800. The 2023 earthquake destabilised it further, as well as causing rockfalls along the access trail from Senpiyar Cd, but there's still a good view back towards the city.
• 36.219936.18487 Hatay Archaeological Museum, Antakya Reyhanlı Yolu 117, ☏ +90 326 225 1060. Temporarily closed. Brilliant collection of classical mosaics, coins, sarcophagi, and Iron and Bronze Ages artefacts. It suffered minor damage in 2023 and is being repaired rather than rebuilt.  (updated Jun 2026)

• 36.09166736.0355568 Monastery of Saint Simeon (22 km southwest of Antakya, off D420 to Samandağ). Daily 08:30-17:00. St Simeon the Younger (521–597) was a stylite, an ascetic who lived his life atop a pillar. This monastery is the site of the final pillar he occupied; only its base survives, along with the ruins of three churches and a baptistry. The monastery was destroyed in 1268. The draughty hilltop has fine views and a series of wind turbines. Free.  (updated Jun 2026)
• 36.11388935.9763899 Vakıflı (Վաքըֆ) in the hills north of Samandağ is the only village in Turkey to retain an Armenian majority; others from the area relocated to Lebanon. Most of its buildings were wrecked in the 2023 earthquake, and as of 2026 the museum, Orthodox church and other facilities have not re-opened.
• Moses' Tree (Musa Ağacı) in Hıdırbey village 2.5 km north of Vakıflı is an ancient plane tree. In legend it grew from Moses' staff when he struck the ground. It's a pleasant stop for a cup of tea.
• 36.08170735.94626210 Hz Hızır Türbesi, Deniz, Samandağ. An Alawite pilgrimage shrine and mausoleum in a modern building on a traffic island. The plastered rock inside is believed to be the meeting place of Moses and the holy man Al-Khidr, as described in Quran sura Al-Kahf (18), ayah 60-82. The custom is to burn incense while circumnavigating the shrine counterclockwise three times before entering to make a wish, and again three times after stepping out, so it's handy that the holy meeting was in the middle of a roundabout. Free.  (updated Jun 2026)
• Deniz (meaning "sea") is the tatty beach strip of the village of Samandağ, extending north from the shrine to the village of Çevlik. Hard to believe today, but Çevlik was the Roman seaport of Seleucia Pieria, until it silted up in the 5th century. A scenic road hugs the coast north to Arsuz and İskenderun.

• 36.12277835.92916711 Titus Tunnel, Çevlik. Daily 08:30-17:00. The most substantial of the remains of Roman Seleucia, a channel and tunnel hacked through the rock for 1.4 km to divert a river. That was partly for flood control but mostly to prevent the harbour being trashed by river silt and debris. Work started under Emperor Vespasian (ruled 69-79 AD), continued under Titus (r 79-81) and was completed under Antoninus Pius (r 138–161). Legionnaires, sailors, prisoners, slaves and other expendables laboured away here. You enter the deep channel (nowadays dry except after rainfall), and with a flashlight can continue into the tunnel. Most visitors turn back after 100 m but you can go right through.  (updated Jun 2026)
• Beşikli Mağara (Cradle Cave) is a Roman necropolis carved into the cliffs 500 m up the lane from Titus Tunnel, same hours and ticket.

• 36.14544636.14141812 Harbiye 10 km south of city centre in antiquity was Defne, named for the Daphne of legend who turned into a laurel tree to escape the amorous Apollo. Even that didn't entirely deter him and laurel wreaths became the symbol of Olympic victors and artists such as the Poet Laureate. Harbiye is now a suburb of Antakya but its south edge has laurel groves and waterfalls, a popular spot for a leisurely dinner.
• 36.136.213 Koz Castle above Sofular village was first built in the 7th century, and reinforced during the 11th-13th. It succumbed to a siege in 1275 and was abandoned. Its bastions were already tottering before the 2023 earthquake and have not been shored up, so take care in approaching.
• 36.0536.1514 Şenköy is a well-preserved historic village 23 km south of city centre. The main sight is the 16th century mosque and tomb of Sheik Ahmet Kuseyri.
• 36.062636.22215 Altınözü Necropolis is Roman / Byzantine, carved into the mountainside 1 km north of the village of Yunushanı. It's free to explore 24 hours but is degraded by graffiti, vandalism and trash.

• 36.42694436.22516 Bakras Castle (32 km north of Antakya). 24 hours. This castle guards the southern approach to the Syrian Gates through the Amanos Mountains. The first known structure was 9th-century Byzantine, and it was kept in good repair by the Knights Templar and Armenians, until abandoned in the 13th century after defeat by the Mamluks. It's a steep rough trail and the ruin is so overgrown and tumbledown, you may struggle to find a way in. Free.  (updated Jun 2026)
• Belen northwest over the pass is described at İskenderun.
• 36.531436.364817 Bayazid Bastami Shrine, Alaybeyli (49 km north of Antakya). Closed. Bayazid Bastami (d 875 AD) was a Sufi mystic. The site on an outcrop was originally the castle of Darb-ı Sak, or Trapessac under the Knights Templar, and later a retreat for ascetic dervishes. One of the sarcophagi within is said to hold his remains, but his name means he came from Bastam in Semnan Province of Iran and the shrine there has a stronger claim. The Alaybeyli shrine was badly damaged in the 2023 earthquake and restoration continues.  (updated Jun 2026)

• Football: Hatayspor were relegated in 2025 and again in 2026, so they now play soccer in TFF 2. Lig the third tier. Their New Hatay Stadium was badly damaged by the earthquake so for the time being they play at Fuat Tosyalı Stadium in İskenderun.
• Beach: Samandağ beach (27 km west) is 14 km long. Few facilities are open.

Laurel soap (defne sabunu) is a local specialty. Some people are allergic to it, skin-test a small patch before buying.

Bim at Yavuz Sultan Selim Cd 128 is the most central supermarket, open daily 09:00-21:00.

Uzun Çarşı the atmospheric "Long Market" straggling through the old centre was wrecked in the earthquake and its traders have gone elsewhere.

Hatay has the usual Turkish staple foods but also Arab-influenced cuisine. So you'll find humus and tahini here, and künefe a shredded pastry with cheese melted within.

City centre restaurants in business in 2026 include Serenat at Gazipaşa Cd 62, Antik Han Plaza at Uzun Çarşı Cd 182, Gariban Kebap at Küçük Sanayi Cd 14, Ahmet Usta'nin Yeri on Abdurrahman Melek Cd, and Pöç Kasap at İzzet Güçlü Cd 28/4.

The Fish Market area and eating strip along Hürriyet Cd were utterly destroyed.

Restaurants and cafes serve alcohol.

Antakya before the earthquake had several free-standing bars. Almost all were lost, but one survivor is Antiocha Bar at 6th Sk 7, a block west of Şükrü Güçlü Blv bridge. It's open daily 09:00-00:00.

• 36.198436.16261 Luwi Antakya Hotel, Kurtuluş Cd 32, ☏ +90 326 241 4848. Comfy welcoming place.  (updated Jun 2026)
• Tetrapole is opposite Luwi at Leylek Sk 3.
• Çankaya Konakları Otel is 50 m south of Luwi at Kurtuluş Cd 14.
• Maison Gali is 200 m south of Luwi at Akıncılar Sk 2, off Kurtuluş Cd.
• Affan Hotel is 50 m north of Luwi at Kara Ahmet Çk 8, off Kurtuluş Cd.
• Le Reve Hotel, Ülkü Sk 33/3, off Kurtuluş Cd (100 m north of Luwi), ☏ +90 538 391 8818. Smart clean central hotel. B&B double 4000 TL. (updated Jun 2026)
• 36.200536.16472 Sam Frans Otel, Kurtuluş Cd 86, ☏ +90 533 033 0339. Charming hotel in a 19th century building. B&B double €100.  (updated Jun 2026)
• Museum Hotel, Hacılar Sk 26 (within Necmi Asfuroglu Museum), ☏ +90 326 290 0000. They stumbled upon Roman ruins while building it, so they created a museum and perched the hotel on top. Mostly good reviews. B&B double €180. (updated Jun 2026)
• Hotel Mozaik, İstiklal Caddesi 18 (Sultan Sofrası Üstü), ☏ +90 326 215-50-20. Located in the city center, the hotel rooms are very clean. 75 TL with breakfast for a single room, 100 TL for a double.. (updated Nov 2010)
• 36.204536.16253 Antakya Otel, 6125th Cd 8, off Istiklal Cd, ☏ +90 501 039 6464. Smart, clean and central.  (updated Jun 2026)
• 36.191836.11984 Artes Hotel, Topardıç Cd 2, ☏ +90 549 110 5140. Efficient place on the bypass, convenient for motorists. B&B double €130.  (updated Jun 2026)
• 36.255536.17675 Some Hotel, 2699th Sk 6, ☏ +90 549 110 5140. Modern chalets at the north end of the bypass. Double (room only) 3600 TL.  (updated Jun 2026)

As of June 2026, Antakya and its approach roads have 4G from all Turkish carriers, with 5G in city centre.

• Adana 200 km northwest makes a good stop-off heading for Anatolia and the Med resorts. The airbase and associated industries means a wide selection of hotels.
• Gaziantep 200 km northeast has fascinating Roman mosaics, rescued from inundation by a dam.
• Latakia 100 km south is the closest major city in Syria. This coastal route continues through Tartus to Tripoli and Beirut.
• Aleppo 123 km east in peaceful times was a fascinating old town and the natural route to Palmyra and Damascus.

Ends at (W E) ← İskenderun ←	N  S	→ Yayladağı/Kessab → Becomes Route 1 → Latakia
Kahramanmaraş ← Türkoğlu ( E) ← Nurdağı ( W / E, W / E) ←	N  S	→ Merges with
END ← Samandağ ←	W  E	→ Cilvegözü (Reyhanlı)/Bab al-Hawa → Becomes Route M45 → Aleppo