Guide
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.
