Hatay

Museums and Ancient Cities
Hatay Archeology Museum (Antakya Mosaic Museum): The museum is the second place in the world with its richness in mosaic collection and in the third place with its richness of coin collection. Various jewelry, statues, tombs and archeological findings belonging to various periods discovered at the excavations executed in Harbiye, Antakya, Aççana, Çevlik and İskenderun are exhibited in the museum.

Harbiye (Daphne): The ancient city is located 7 km away from Antakya city center and is a beautiful promenade place. This ancient city is the famous city of Daphne of the ancient ages. According to the legend, Apollo, son of Zeus and god of light sees a young and beautiful lady named Daphne and falls in love with her. The god wants to speak and tell her his love. But the afraid young Daphne starts to run away from the god. After a short chase, Daphne understands that she could not escape from the god. She prays “O mother earth, cover me, hide me, protect me”. Then Daphne was transformed into a tree under the astonished looks of Apollo. After this event the victories of poetry and warfare starts to be awarded by the branch of the Daphne tree.

Another rumor is that the waterfalls of Harbiye was formed from the tears of Daphne. The city of Daphne was famous with its waterfalls in Selevkos periods and was a worldwide famous promenade place. There were numerous mansions, temples and entertainment facilities. The arranged Olympic games at the stadium of the city was legendary. However severe earthquakes had destroyed this beautiful ancient city and there have been no visual structures or artworks left.

Harbiye is now a famous and beautiful promenade place located at a plateau and also is an important district with the discovered and uncovered statues and touristic souvenirs. The natural silk clothing produced in the district with workbenches are highly demanded both in the country and abroad.

Tel Aççana: The ancient city is located on the Antakya - Reyhanlı highway. There are two palace ruins from 5th century B.C. 17 different settlement layers were determined. The archeological findings discovered here are exhibited in Hatay Archeology Museum.

Kinet Tumulus: It is at the vicinity of Dörtyol. The excavations are still in progress. At this excavations remnants of various periods were discovered.

Necropolis: Rock and earthen burial grounds were discovered in Kuzuculu and Karakese belonging to the 2nd - 3rd A.D and 4th - 5th centuries A.D , respectively. From the executed excavations, tombs, glass bottles and pots, cooked earthen pots, oil lamps and signets was discovered.

Ceylanlı: This locality was a settlement place in the Byzantine and Gündüzoğu Domain periods and there are ruins scattered in the region. The nearby rocks contain rock tombs with inscriptions on them.

İmma: There was a settlement place in the vicinity of Reyhanlı, on the Antakya - Cilvegözü road which was known as “İmma”, place of settlement during ancient times.This location is famous for its promenade areas and tea gardens in the present day.

Tainat: The ruins of a Hittite palace and temple was discovered at the excavations in Tainat. The findings are exhibited in Hatay Archeology Museum.

Çevlik: This ancient city was founded by Seleukos Nikator in 300 B.C. In order to prevent the filling of the inner part by the floods from mountains, a tunnel construction was initiated in the period of Emperor Vespesian but this tunnel was completed only in the period of Titus. The most frequently visited location is the Beşikli Cave in which the rock tombs are present.

Dor Temple: It is possible to spot the ruins of pillars over a dominant hill at the Çevlik locality of Kapısuyu region .

Water Channels: It is still possible to see the ruins of the 10 km long channels and bridges, which was constructed to bring water to Antakya from Harbiye (Daphne) waterfall in the periods of Seleukos and Roman civilizations. The only section that is inside the borders of Antakya is known as Memekli Bridge.