Hatay Essentials

Explore the layered history of Hatay, a region where Hittite, Roman, and Ottoman legacies converge. This selection features the Hatay Archaeology Museum’s world-class Roman mosaics and the Church of Saint Peter, one of Christianity's oldest places of worship. Engineering landmarks like the Titus Tunnel sit alongside the ruins of the Monastery of Saint Simeon Stylites and the ancient city of Alalakh. From the medieval fortifications of Bagras Castle to the 7th-century Habib-i Neccar Camii, these sites represent the diverse cultural heritage of the Orontes River valley.

Hatay Essentials — Harita

A

Church of Saint Peter

The Church of Saint Peter near Antakya, Turkey, is composed of a cave carved into the mountainside on Mount Starius with a depth of 13 m, a…

Vikiçizer / CC BY-SA 3.0

B

The Titus Tunnel

Inspect the marvel of ancient engineering, a Roman attempt to divert a river by cutting more than kilometre long tunnel into a rock.

Godfried Warreyn / CC BY 2.5

C

Bagras Castle

Bagras or Baghrās, ancient Pagrae, is a town and its nearby castle in the İskenderun district of Turkey, in the Amanus Mountains.

D

Hatay Archaeology Museum

This museum houses one of the world's most extensive collections of Roman and Byzantine mosaics. Exhibits also include Paleolithic artifacts, Hittite sculptures, and stone sarcophagi recovered from archaeological sites across the Amuq Valley.

E

Habib-i Neccar Camii

Constructed on the site of a pagan temple and a later Byzantine church, this is widely considered the first mosque built in Anatolia. It dates back to the 7th century and features a distinctive Ottoman-era minaret and courtyard.

F

Payas Castle

A coastal fortress rebuilt by the Ottomans in the 16th century over earlier Crusader foundations. It is part of a larger complex that includes a caravanserai, a mosque, and a traditional bathhouse designed to serve pilgrims.

G

Monastery of St. Simeon Stylites

The Monastery of Saint Simeon Stylites the Younger is a former Christian monastery that lies on a hill roughly 29 kilometres southwest of…

Nicoleon / CC BY-SA 4.0

H

Tell Tayinat

Tell Ta'yinat is a low-lying ancient tell on the east bank at the bend of the Orontes River where it flows through the Amuq valley, in the…

Ollios / CC BY-SA 3.0

I

Ancient Alalakh

Alalakh is an ancient archaeological site approximately 20 kilometres northeast of Antakya in what is now Turkey's Hatay Province.

Andre Thess / CC BY-SA 4.0

J

Musa Dagh

Musa Dagh is a mountain in the Hatay Province of Turkey. In 1915, it was the location of a successful Armenian resistance to the Armenian…