The Musa tree at Hıdırbey, in the Samandağ district of Hatay, draws visitors from across the country, and what brings them is a story as much as a tree. As it is told locally, Hızır and Moses met on the shore at Samandağ and walked up into the hills together; at this spot Moses drove his staff into the ground and bent down to drink, and when he looked back the staff had put out shoots. The tree is believed to have grown from that sapling, quickened by the water of life, and to be three thousand years old.
The tree itself needs no legend to impress. Its trunk measures 7.5 metres across and 21 metres around, its height is given as seven metres, and its branches spread over roughly a thousand square metres. It is under protection as a registered monument. It stands in the village of Hıdırbey in Samandağ.
Getting there
- Access
- In Hıdırbey village in the Samandağ district of Hatay.
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).
