Exploring Ancient Layers and History in Antakya

Antakya, Turkey

By the Travel Wiki editorial team

Walk the Spine of Ancient Antioch Along Kurtuluş Caddesı

Stand at the Habib-i Nejjar Mosque on the corner of Kurtuluş Caddesı and Kemal Paşa Caddesı, where the street stretches north and south as the old backbone of the city. This avenue overlies the Roman colonnades of Herod Street, layering two thousand years of commerce and faith beneath your feet. The mosque itself sits on what was once an ancient pagan temple, then an early Christian church, then—from the seventh century onward—one of the region's first mosques. The current structure, rebuilt after earthquakes in 1853 and again in 2023, is clean and reverent; descend to the basement to see the tomb of Habib Al-Najjar, the carpenter whose legend binds Christian and Islamic tradition. The street today tells a harder story: many of the historic buildings that once lined Kurtuluş Caddesı collapsed in the 2023 earthquakes, and facades preserved here and there stand among crumbling walls and rubble. Walking this street means witnessing both the resilience of place and the weight of time.

Descend into the Earliest Church and Cave Sanctuary at Church of Saint Peter

Travel to Senpiyar Caddesı to reach the Church of Saint Peter, one of Christianity's oldest places of worship. The church is cut into a cliff face, with the main chamber recessing 13 metres into the rock—a cave sanctuary where St. Peter is believed to have preached. The earliest structures date to the fourth or fifth century; around 1100, Crusaders enlarged the cave and added a stone façade, which was rebuilt in 1863. Above the altar stands a statue of St. Peter carved in 1932. The setting—intimate, austere, carved from living rock—carries the weight of that early Christian history. After exploring the church, look 300 metres north along the hillside for Charon, a four-metre-tall rock relief from the second century BC depicting the mythological boatman; locals built it to ward off plague, but left it unfinished when the disease subsided.

Examine Roman Antioch Beneath Modern Ground at Necmi Asfuroğlu Archaeological Museum

In 2009, archaeologists discovered remains of ancient Antioch while preparing to build a hotel on Süreyya Halefoğlu Caddesı. Rather than relocate, the builders mounted the hotel on steel pillars and created a museum underneath—a vivid solution that lets you walk directly over Roman pavement, ruined bathhouses, and floor mosaics. The museum is small but concentrated, offering a tangible sense of how the city's layers have accumulated. The Hatay Archaeological Museum on Antakya Reyhanlı Yolu holds a brilliant collection of classical mosaics, coins, sarcophagi, and Iron and Bronze Age artefacts, though it remains temporarily closed for repairs after the 2023 earthquake.

Venture into Roman Engineering at Titus Tunnel and Seleucia Pieria

Travel 22 kilometres west toward Samandağ to reach Çevlik, site of the Roman seaport of Seleucia Pieria. Here stands the Titus Tunnel, the most substantial remnant of a vast hydraulic project: a channel and tunnel hacked through solid rock for 1.4 kilometres to divert a river and prevent silt from choking the harbour. Work began under Emperor Vespasian (ruled 69–79 AD), continued under his son Titus (79–81), and was completed under Antoninus Pius (138–161). You can enter the deep channel—now dry except after rain—and, with a flashlight, venture into the tunnel itself; most visitors turn back after 100 metres, but the passage runs through completely. Nearby, Beşikli Mağara (Cradle Cave) is a Roman necropolis carved into the cliffs 500 metres up the lane, its burials cut into living rock. The harbour silted up in the fifth century, transforming what was once a thriving port into a quiet village, and a scenic coastal road hugs the shore north toward Arsuz and İskenderun.

Wander Harbiye's Laurel Groves and Waterfall Gardens

Ten kilometres south of the city centre lies Harbiye, a suburb anchored in legend. In antiquity it was Defne, named for Daphne, who in Greek mythology transformed into a laurel tree to escape Apollo's pursuit—a transformation so iconic that laurel wreaths became symbols of Olympic victors and poets. At Harbiye's southern edge, laurel groves and waterfalls create a leafy, cool refuge where restaurants serve long, leisurely dinners. This is where locals escape the summer heat and traffic of the city proper, walking with family and friends, eating meze, staying outside late into the evening. The neighbourhood offers the easiest access to the kind of unhurried, social rhythm that defines life in Antakya outside the more formal districts.

Explore Crusader and Byzantine Fortifications in the Surrounding Hills

The countryside around Antakya holds castles and monasteries that mark the city's contested history. The Monastery of Saint Simeon stands 22 kilometres southwest off the road to Samandağ, perched on a draughty hilltop. Saint Simeon the Younger (521–597) was a stylite—an ascetic who lived atop a pillar as a spiritual discipline. Only the pillar's base remains, along with ruins of three churches and a baptistry, destroyed during the 1268 siege. The hilltop offers fine views and modern wind turbines. Koz Castle, above Sofular village to the south, was first built in the seventh century and reinforced during the eleventh to thirteenth centuries before falling to siege in 1275; its bastions were already fragile before 2023 and require caution when approached. Bakras Castle guards the northern approach 32 kilometres away, a steep rough trail leading to a heavily overgrown Byzantine ruin kept in repair by Knights Templar and Armenians before abandonment in the thirteenth century. Šenköy, a well-preserved historic village 23 kilometres south, centers on a sixteenth-century mosque and tomb of Sheik Ahmet Kuseyri.

Spend Time in Republic Square and Büyük Antakya Parkı

Cumhuriyet Meydanı (Republic Square) sits at the centre of town as a roundabout surrounded by civic buildings, many destroyed in the 2023 earthquakes. The statue of Atatürk has been restored to its central plinth; the rest remains a work in progress, with the Council for Culture and Arts Center rebuilt on the north side. It is an honest, unfinished space—not a destination of spectacle but of witness. Nearby, Büyük Antakya Parkı (Atatürk Park) offers a peaceful, tree-filled refuge by the river Orontes, open 24 hours. This is where the rhythm of the city slows, where shade and water provide relief from the summer heat, and where you can sit quietly with tea and observe the patterns of local life.

Antakya invites slow, layered exploration. The city's past—pagan, Christian, Islamic, Crusader, Ottoman—is legible in its streets and stone if you take time to read it. The 2023 earthquakes have altered the physical landscape, leaving some neighbourhoods as honest ruins, yet the core places—the church cut into rock, the Roman tunnel, the mosque on sacred ground—remain accessible. Come prepared to walk, to look closely at what remains, and to understand a place shaped by commerce, faith, conquest, and endurance.

Sources

  1. Antakya
  2. Wikivoyage: Antakya

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