Turks Look to History and Foresee Rebirth of Ancient Antakya from Earthquake Ruins

The destroyed Habib-i Najjar Mosque is pictured in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Antakya, Türkiye, February 16, 2023. (Reuters)
The destroyed Habib-i Najjar Mosque is pictured in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Antakya, Türkiye, February 16, 2023. (Reuters)
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Turks Look to History and Foresee Rebirth of Ancient Antakya from Earthquake Ruins

The destroyed Habib-i Najjar Mosque is pictured in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Antakya, Türkiye, February 16, 2023. (Reuters)
The destroyed Habib-i Najjar Mosque is pictured in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Antakya, Türkiye, February 16, 2023. (Reuters)

Remnants of ancient Abrahamic history were destroyed when an earthquake flattened much of Antakya in southern Türkiye last month, but many hope the city can rise from the rubble as it has done over centuries of disasters and conquests.

Established by the Seleucid Empire in 300 BC, Antakya, formerly Antioch, has been home to Jews, Christians and Muslims and destroyed or heavily damaged several times as it changed hands between Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Ottomans.

Much of the rescue effort after the Feb. 6 earthquakes focused on the modern, residential side of Antakya, where thousands were caught in their sleep and crushed or trapped under the rubble. In total, nearly 52,000 people were killed in Türkiye and Syria.

On the opposite bank of the Orontes River, in the old town once popular with tourists, mosques and churches lie ruined. Rescue efforts in the area, populated with businesses rather than homes, were sparse, while security forces kept guard against looters at every corner.

Abdurrahman Kurdo, a business student and the manager of a hotel near the destroyed Antioch Greek Orthodox Church, was sifting through the rubble to salvage what he could of Antakya's culture. So far he had found an issue of Hatay Magazine, celebrating life in Türkiye’s southernmost province, from the 1970s.

"The rubble in this area is not only made up of concrete piles, rocks and roof tiles - the culture of Hatay lies underneath," he said.

"What we learn from our elders is that Hatay witnessed seven earthquakes in its history but it was reborn from its ashes. We believe that Hatay will be reborn from its ashes again."

The entrance to the courtyard of the church, rebuilt after an earthquake in 1872, can now only be accessed from a side street by climbing over a mound of debris.

Habib-i Najjar Mosque

The bell tower lies on its side, with clothes placed on top for earthquake victims to take. From the courtyard, the entrance to the church is barely recognizable, the door hidden behind rubble.

The floor is also covered by rubble from the collapsed roof, while several paintings of Jesus and the saints hang slanted and covered in dust and mud on the walls. Others lie among the debris.

The Habib-i Najjar Mosque, said to be the first mosque in the Anatolia peninsula, dates back to the Roman Empire, when it is believed there was a pagan temple in its place. A church built in its place was turned into a mosque and then back to a church, a pattern repeating itself several times. It was last rebuilt by the Ottoman Empire in the 1800s after an earthquake.

The minaret collapsed in last month's disaster and only a small section of the dome above the pulpit can be seen behind the rubble of the front wall that fell into the courtyard, while three other walls appear intact.

The Ulu Camii (Grand Mosque), dating back to the 18th century, collapsed, while the minaret of the Sarimiye Mosque, built in the 16th century, has toppled. Other historical buildings, including the governor's office, were also destroyed.

Kurdo recalled how people of different religions coexisted in the city. "We always lived together, we grew up together," he said. "We believe we will lift up Hatay again as one power."

Among the victims of the Feb. 6 earthquake were Saul Cenudioglu, leader of the Jewish community in Antakya, and his wife, Tuna Cenudioglu.

The Antioch Synagogue is still standing but there are cracks in the walls and debris everywhere, said Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, chairman of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States.

‘Coexistence, tolerance’

Antakya has been home to Jews for more than 2,300 years but the community had shrunk to fewer than 20 in recent years.

"However small it was, it had a very big part in the heart of the city," Chitrik said. "The heart of Antakya always showed this coexistence, tolerance. It was quite amazing to see this real connection between different traditions, cultures, ethnic backgrounds."

Olcay Aydemir, an architect and restoration expert, said the region had experienced earthquakes over thousands of years and restoration efforts had to be sensitive.

"These structures rise from their ashes," she said. "These rocks should not be thrown away. The ones that can be re-used need to be re-used."

The structures that were still partly standing, such as the Habib-i Najjar Mosque, needed to be strengthened, Aydemir said, adding that every collapsed structure had to be examined individually to learn from the past and apply the lessons to the future.

"The last earthquake was bigger than expected. But it brought with it important data that could inform us about structures' weaknesses and reasons for their collapse," she said.



Australia Sweats Through Hottest 12 Months on Record

Australia has just sweltered through its hottest 12 months on record, a period of drenching floods, tropical cyclones and mass coral bleaching. DAVID GRAY / AFP/File
Australia has just sweltered through its hottest 12 months on record, a period of drenching floods, tropical cyclones and mass coral bleaching. DAVID GRAY / AFP/File
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Australia Sweats Through Hottest 12 Months on Record

Australia has just sweltered through its hottest 12 months on record, a period of drenching floods, tropical cyclones and mass coral bleaching. DAVID GRAY / AFP/File
Australia has just sweltered through its hottest 12 months on record, a period of drenching floods, tropical cyclones and mass coral bleaching. DAVID GRAY / AFP/File

Australia has just sweltered through its hottest 12 months on record, a weather official said Thursday, a period of drenching floods, tropical cyclones and mass coral bleaching.

Senior government climatologist Simon Grainger said the rolling 12-month period between April 2024 and March 2025 was 1.61 degrees Celsius (34.9 degrees Fahrenheit) above average -- the hottest since records began more than a century ago.

"This is certainly part of a sustained global pattern," he told AFP.

"We've been seeing temperatures since about April 2023 that were globally much warmer than anything we have seen in the global historical record."

The previous hottest period was in 2019, Grainger said, when temperatures were 1.51 degrees Celsius above average.

"That is a pretty significant difference," Grainger said.

"It's well above what we would expect just from uncertainties due to rounding. The difference is much larger than that."

The record was measured on a rolling 12-month basis -- rather than as a calendar year.

Australia has also recorded its hottest-ever March, Grainger said, with temperatures more than two degrees above what would normally be seen.

"There has basically been sustained warmth through pretty much all of Australia," he said.

"We saw a lot of heatwave conditions, particularly in Western Australia. And we didn't really see many periods of cool weather -- we didn't see many cold fronts come through."

Sickly white coral

From the arid outback to the tropical coast, swaths of Australia have been pummeled by wild weather in recent months.

Unusually warm waters in the Coral Sea stoked a tropical cyclone that pummeled densely populated seaside hamlets on the country's eastern coast in March.

Whole herds of cattle have drowned in vast inland floods still flowing across outback Queensland.

And a celebrated coral reef off Western Australia has turned a sickly shade of white as hotter seas fuel an unfolding mass bleaching event.

The average sea surface temperature around Australia was the "highest on record" in 2024, according to a recent study by Australian National University.

This record run looked to have continued throughout January and February, said Grainger.

"We haven't seen much cooling in sea surface temperatures."

Moisture collects in the atmosphere as oceans evaporate in hotter temperatures -- eventually leading to more intense downpours and storms.

Australia follows a slew of heat records that have been toppling across the planet.

Six major international datasets confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year on record.

Scientists are unanimous that burning fossil fuels has largely driven long-term global warming.

Australia sits on bulging deposits of coal, gas, metals and minerals, with mining and fossil fuels stoking decades of near-unbroken economic growth.

But it is increasingly suffering from more intense heatwaves, bushfires and drought, which scientists have linked to climate change.