See One Historic Turkish Street Before and After the Earthquakes

By Anjali Singhvi, Bedel Saget, K.K. Rebecca Lai, Yuliya Parshina-Kottas, Sergey Ponomarev and Jeremy WhiteMarch 22, 2023

A barbershop that doubled as a ‘therapy room.’ A 150-year-old church. Doner kebab shops. The Times flew a drone over a street in Antakya’s Old City to show what has been lost.

Drone path along

Saray Street

Asi River

Old City

Officials said shortly after the earthquakes that at least 80 percent of all buildings in Antakya would need to be demolished. Across Turkey, more than 50,000 people have died and more than 1.5 million people have been displaced.

The destruction on Saray Street is a fraction of all that was lost in Old City. It was Antakya’s anchor — bringing residents together for dining, shopping, gathering and praying.

Narrow streets like Saray had cul-de-sacs with some of the area’s finest restaurants serving local cuisines and desserts, like knafeh, a sweet cheese pastry. It was “the gastronomy market of Antakya,” said Ms. Yuksel, who co-owned Barudi Cafe.

Not far from Saray, Kurtulus Street is another commercial hub that was destroyed by the earthquakes. Stretching a mile, it had several shops, restaurants and hotels.

Beyond its shops and restaurants, Old City had some of the most important and oldest religious and cultural institutions. Among the places that are now gone and may never be restored are: the Antakya Protestant Church; the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch; Antakya Synagogue; and Habibi Neccar Mosque, which is one of the first mosques in the Anatolia region, an area that spans most of Turkey.

Damaged or destroyed historic or cultural landmark

ANTAKYA

Ihsaniye

Mosque

Antakya

Post Office

Adali

Mansion

Mahremiye

Mosque

New

Mosque

Former

Town

Hall

Former

Parliament

of Hatay

New

Public

Bath

Habibi Neccar

Mosque

Kemal Pasa St.

Bank of

Ziraat

Sheik Ali

Mosque

Grand (Ulu)

Mosque

Kurtulus St.

ASI RIVER

Old City

Greek Orthodox

Church of Antioch

Antakya

Ata College

Saray St.

Sarimiye Mosque

Antakya Synagogue

The Liwan

Hotel

Affan Coffeehouse

Antakya

Protestant

Church

Government

Building

Turkey

Antakya

500 ft.

ANTAKYA

Ihsaniye

Mosque

Antakya

Post Office

Adali

Mansion

Mahremiye

Mosque

New

Mosque

Former

Parliament

of Hatay

Former

Town

Hall

New

Public

Bath

Kemal Pasa St.

Bank of

Ziraat

Sheik Ali

Mosque

Grand (Ulu)

Mosque

ASI RIVER

Habibi Neccar

Mosque

Greek Orthodox

Church of Antioch

Old City

Sarimiye Mosque

Antakya

Ata College

Kurtulus St.

Saray St.

The Liwan Hotel

Antakya Synagogue

Affan Coffeehouse

Antakya

Protestant

Church

Feb. 6

earthquakes

Government

Building

Turkey

Antakya

500 ft.

ANTAKYA

Ihsaniye

Mosque

Antakya

Post Office

Adali

Mansion

Mahremiye

Mosque

New

Mosque

Former

Town

Hall

Former

Parliament

of Hatay

New

Public

Bath

Habibi Neccar

Mosque

Kemal Pasa St.

Bank of

Ziraat

Sheik Ali

Mosque

Grand (Ulu)

Mosque

Kurtulus St.

ASI RIVER

Old City

Greek Orthodox

Church of Antioch

Antakya

Ata College

Saray St.

Sarimiye Mosque

Antakya Synagogue

The Liwan

Hotel

Affan Coffeehouse

Antakya

Protestant

Church

Government

Building

Turkey

Antakya

500 ft.

Adali

Mansion

Antakya

Post Office

Mahremiye

Mosque

Ihsaniye

Mosque

New

Mosque

Former

Town Hall

Former

Parliament

of Hatay

Kemal Pasa St.

Grand (Ulu)

Mosque

Bank of

Ziraat

New Public

Bath

Sheik Ali

Mosque

ANTAKYA

Habibi Neccar

Mosque

ASI RIVER

Kurtulus St.

Old City

Greek Orthodox

Church of Antioch

Sarimiye

Mosque

Antakya

Synagogue

Antakya

Ata College

Saray St.

The Liwan

Hotel

Government

Building

Turkey

Affan Coffeehouse

Feb. 6

earthquakes

Antakya

Protestant

Church

Antakya

500 ft.

Many residents and business owners had taken great pride in Old City’s multicultural alliances and embrace of various cultures.

“Here, there’s a church, there’s a mosque, and there’s a synagogue,” said Ozgur Akseven, 34, who owned Eva Lounge Cafe, a restaurant with live music near Saray Street. “In the community, we are Armenian, we are Christian, we are Muslim, we are Jewish. We are human all together.”

When the church bell rang, Mr. Akseven said, his lounge would stop the music, and everyone would stop drinking for about 45 minutes to show respect.

Mr. Akseven, who had returned to retrieve his scooter from the rubble in late February, spoke of his family’s connection to the neighborhood. “Even my father’s father has some memories in here. This is real history,” he said, adding that “the identity of Antakya was erased” with the earthquakes.

For Dr. Eraslan, Old City was an important place she visited often with her family. “It was good before,” she said, “but we didn’t understand before we lost our city, how important it was to us.”

But Antakya, formerly called Antioch, is no stranger to disaster. Since its birth, it has rebuilt itself over and over, emerging resilient every time.

“The community always came back stronger from each disaster,” said Andrea U. De Giorgi, an author of “Antioch: A History,” and a professor of classical studies at Florida State University.

Rebuilding and restoring all that was lost in Old City may take many years.

“We have a long road ahead of us,” said Deniz Ozturk, a restoration expert and volunteer working on the ground in Antakya.

For now, what was once a vibrant part of the Old City remains desolate, and sits eerily empty.

Notes: Building facades overlaid on the drone footage are from Google Maps’ Street View. Images from 2015 were used when recent imagery was unavailable. A section of the main street shown in the drone videos is officially called Hurriyet Street, but locals refer to it as Saray Street. Some of the business names were verified using Google Maps’ Street View and videos of the street taken by residents a few months before the earthquakes.

Sources: Emir Cekmecelioglu, architect; Andrea U. De Giorgi, Florida State University; Tugce Tezer, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Department of Urban and Regional Planning; Zeynep Ahunbay, Istanbul Technical University; Alper Sener, videographer; Turkish Ministry of National Defense; Cultural Inventory Map (damaged historic buildings); Hatay Culture Inventory, Vol. 1, Antakya

Bedel Saget and Anjali Singhvi reported from Antakya, Turkey. Drone footage by Sergey Ponomarev. Maps by Scott Reinhard. Additional reporting and translation by Beril Eski, Aladdin Cogal and Gulsin Harman.