Page 13 - dogu_guney_dogu_en

Catholic Church and Sarımiye Mosque
Hatay is an inexhaustible treasure-
house of history and a centre of
civilization. The evidence of the
earliest settlement extends back as far
as the Epipaleolithic Period (40.000-
9.000 BC) and can be seen in the caves
found in Samandağ-Çevlik, Antakya-
Şenköy and Yayladağ-Üçağızlı. From
9000 BC onwards, Hatay was
controlled successively by the
Akkadians, the Hurrians, the Hittites,
the Assyrians, the Persians, the
Macedonians, the Romans, the Arabs,
the Byzantines, the Seljuks, the
Crusaders, the Mamluks, and the
Ottomans.

Antakya, the biblical city of Antioch,
lies on the banks of Asi River (Orontes)
on a fertile plain surrounded by grand
mountains. Once the capital of the
Seleucid kings, it was renowned for its
wealth and luxury. In the 7th century,
Antioch was one of five patriarchal
centres of the Christian church, the
others being Rome, Alexandria,
Jerusalem, and İstanbul
(Constantinople). In Roman times, the
city continued to thrive with commerce
and culture. It featured prominently in
early Christianity where the name
“Christian” was first coined. A cave
known today as the Grotto of St. Peter
or Church of Saint Peter is believed to
be where the Apostle Peter preached
when he visited Antioch and is
Künefe considered to be one of the earliest
Christian houses of worship. This
grotto-church, located on the Antakya-
Reyhanlı road, is as sacred for the
Christian world as the cities of Rome or
Jerusalem and it is the only structure
to have survived from the earliest
period of Christianity when the new
faith had begun to spread. In 1963, the
papacy designated the site as a place of
pilgrimage and also recognized it as the
world’s first cathedral. Every year on
Hatay

Hatay 11