Antakya

We left Gaziantep behind and headed to the little known Hatay province and the city of Antakya. Here was our route for today.

People have lived in around the valley Antakya sits in since around 600BC. Alexander the Great occupied this area in 333 BC, and Antakya itself was founded 2,300 years ago in 300BC as the city of Antioch. The region is known as “Hatay” after the people that originally lived in the valley.

This is a statue of Hatay King Šuppiluliuma I in the Hatay Archaeology Museum, which was the reason we were dipping this far south in Turkey. But let’s keep going.

Antioch later became one of the Roman Empire’s largest cities, and was made the capital of the provinces of Syria and Coele-Syria. It was also an influential early center of Christianity, and gained much ecclesiastical importance in the Byzantine Empire.

The city’s geographical, military, and economic location benefited its occupants, particularly such features as the spice trade, the Silk Road, and the Royal Road.

Julius Caeser once visited in 47 AD and there used to be a Roman hippodrome fashioned after the Circus Maximus in Rome where they would hold chariot racing. This history doesn’t stop there.

Antioch was called “the cradle of Christianity” as a result of its longevity and the pivotal role that it played in the emergence of both Judaism and early Christianity. The New Testament asserts that the name “Christian” first emerged in Antioch.

Because of this history we paid a visit to the Church of St. Peter which is built into a mountainside above Antakya.

This cave is widely believed to have been dug by the Apostle Peter himself as a place for the early Christian community of Antioch to meet, and thus to be the very first Christian church.

Whether or not this is so, St. Peter (and St. Paul) did preach in Antioch around 50 AD and a church had been established in Antioch by as early as 40 AD.

Antioch became a major center for planning and organizing the apostles’ missionary efforts, and it was the base for Paul’s earliest missionary journeys.

As interesting as this was we were very excited to see the Hatay Archaelogical Museum which is our third and final museum where mosaics figure prominently.

The Hatay Museum has a rich collection of mosaics dating back to the Hellenistic and to the Roman era in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. They have been found in the ancient cities of Daphne, Seleucia Pieria, Antioch and Tarsus.

The size of some of the mosaics were stunning – some were at least 40×60 FEET (maybe larger?). It was impossible to get full pictures of most of them without losing details. Deep apologies for that.

This mosaic was about 60 feet wide and it depicts some of the plays of Meander who was an ancient Greek playwright and popular at the nearby resort town of Daphne in the 3rd century.

Here is what it looked like in place when archaelogists uncovered it.

This museum was incredible. Here is a picture of on wing that might give you a sense of the scale of some of these mosaics.

Room after room of genuinely beautiful works.

The museum was deceiving when you first entered and we though it might be a let down after the Zeugma Mosaic Museum in Gaziantep. But it was not a let down at all.

The one below was one of nine panels of a mosaic that measured probably 40×40 feet.

This one depicts Psyche, the Greek goddess of the soul.

Nothing you’re going to see here will do justice to the masterpieces in this museum.

This is Thalassa, the Greek primeval spirit of the sea. With her male counterpart Pontus, she spawned the storm gods and the tribes of fish. You can see the lobster claws pointing out of each side of her head.

This is the earliest depiction of “the evil eye”, a myth that persists even today. It is believed that the eye casts or reflects a malevolent gaze back-upon those who wish harm upon others (especially innocents). Before you judge know that 40% of the world’s population believes in some form of the evil eye!

Okay one last beauty, a close up of Achilles. In Greek mythology, Achilles or Achilleus was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and is the central character of Homer’s Iliad.

Nearby Antioch, on the shore of the Mediterranean was an ancient Roman resort town called Daphne. Many of the mosaics in this incredible collection come from Daphne as it was wealthy people who paid to install the mosaics in their homes and gardens.

In addition to the mosaics, archaelogists also found dozens of sarcophagi that were crafted elsewhere (usually Athens) and shipped to Daphne for their owners. The most famous is the Antakya Sarcophagus, seen below.

One last picture from the Hatay, a sculpture of Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, the Moon, and chastity.

Between the Hatay Archaelogical Museum in Antakya and the Zeugma Mosaic Museum in Gaziantep, mosaic lovers would have an experience of a lifetime.

The two are an easy 2 1/2 hour drive apart (and both are just 4 hours from Cappadocia!), and if you’re in the neighhood it would be a crime to miss them.