Antakya castle was founded around 300 BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander's generals, and was used in turn by the Seleucids, the Romans, the Byzantines, the crusaders, the Seljuks and the Ottomans. The walls ran twelve kilometres and are thought to have had 360 towers. Earthquakes and wars have left them badly ruined, and most of what stands today was built in the sixth century AD by the Byzantine emperor Justinian.
The circuit began at the bank of the Orontes, wound between the Silpius mountains and rejoined the river at Kucukdalyan; today only the stretches on Silpius - Habib-i Neccar - survive. The castle had five gates: the Aleppo or St Paul gate on the north, the Iron gate on the east, the Damascus gate on the south, the Bridge gate on the west and the Dog gate on the northwest. It is three kilometres from the centre of Antakya on the slope of Habib Neccar.
Getting there
- Access
- Three kilometres from the centre, on the slope of Habib Neccar mountain.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Hatay as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 8.1 °C in January to 27.9 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in April, May, June and October; rainfall is heaviest in January (197 mm) and lightest in July (16 mm). Long-term means for 1940-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
