Once home to civilizations, fabled Antioch left in ruins

By Joris Fioriti

THE smashed dome of the ancient mosque, considered to be Turkey’s oldest, covers rubble that used to be a prayer hall.

Once a home to a myriad of civilizations, the southern city of Antakya lies in ruins after last Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake.

Fourteen centuries of history were ravaged in less than two minutes in Antakya, a fabled ancient Greek center known throughout most of its history as Antioch.

Erected in AD 638, the Habib-i Neccar was “the first mosque built within modern-day Turkey’s borders”, according to the government’s culture portal.

Only its walls have survived, leaving delicate yellow, red and blue paintings and calligraphy exposed to the winter sky.

It was even placed under a French mandate between the end of the First World War and 1939, when the city became a part of modernday Turkey.

A former general of Alexander the Great founded Antioch in 300 BC.

The city has suffered several earthquakes—almost one every 100 years—and is no stranger to rebuilding.

There were devastating quakes in 37 BC, 115 AD and 458 AD.

A quake in AD 526 is thought to have killed 250,000 people. In 1054, 10,000 are thought to have died.

“Antakya is the cradle of several historical events,” said Hakan Mertkan, a doctoral student at the University of Bayreuth in Germany and author of a book on Antakya.

But it’s also “a cradle of earthquakes, its soil full of history”, he added.

Crossroads of civilizations

Turkey, like Syria, is on one of the world’s most active fault lines.

But the region is also “at the center of much of humanity’s shared ancient history”, said Aparna Tandon, senior program leader at the International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property.

The area impacted is home to six UNESCO World Heritage Sites.