The ruins of Barlaam Manastırı lie on Keldağ, a mountain in Yayladağı district that was holy ground long before any monks arrived: it was a sacred place in both the Selevukos and Roman periods, and a temple stood here in the 3rd century BC.
In the 4th century AD St. Barlaam came to the mountain, destroyed the statue of Zeus and gathered a community of monks around him. A church was added at the south-east corner of the monastery in the 6th century, only to be brought down by the earthquake of 526. The monastery was rebuilt between 950 and 1050, stayed in use until 1268 and was abandoned after that.
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).
