Antioch or Antakya, city, S Turkey, capital of Hatay Province, on the Orontes R., near the Mediterranean Sea. The modern city is a trade and processing center for the adjacent agricultural plain. Citrus fruit and grapes are grown in abundance; other important crops are olives, melons, wheat, and cotton. Manufactured products include soap, silk and leather goods, and metal handicrafts. It was the ancient capital of the Seleucid dynasty in Syria and of a province of the Roman Empire. The city was founded in 301 BC by Seleucus I, one of the generals and successors of Alexander the Great.

Strategically located at the crossroads of important caravan routes, it soon became a center of commerce and one of the leading cities of the world, famous for a magnificence of architecture rivaled only by Rome and Alexandria. When Syria was conquered by Rome in 64 BC, Antioch became the eastern capital of the Roman Empire. The Romans added to the architectural splendors of the city, building temples, palaces, and theaters, extending aqueducts, and paving main streets with marble.

Antioch was the center of Christendom outside Palestine. The apostles preached there before starting out on their missionary journeys, and in Antioch the term Christian, designating converts of St. Paul, first came into use. In AD 260 Antioch fell to the Persians. Over the next 13 centuries it was conquered by Arabs, Byzantines, Seljuk Turks, Frankish Crusaders, and Egyptians. The devastations of war and persistent earthquakes, including one in 526 that reportedly killed 250,000 people, reduced the once great city to relative unimportance.

Antioch, known as Antakya in modern history, was captured by the Turks in 1516, and it remained a part of the Ottoman Empire until shortly after World War I, when it was conveyed to Syria under a French mandate. The province of Hatay, of which Antakya is the capital, became autonomous in 1938, and the following year it was ceded to Turkey. Antakya, the biblical city of Antioch, lies on the Asi River (Orontes) on a fertile plain surrounded by grand mountains. Once the capital of the Seleucid kings, it was notorious for its wealth and luxury.

Nearby is Saint Peter’s Grotto, in which the apostle preached; a church was built in the cave by Crusaders in the 12th and 13th centuries. On the way to Antakya, off the main road, is the mountain resort of Sogukoluk where you can retreat in the summer from the blazing sun. After you cross the Belen Pass, stop at Bagras Castle, held at various times by the Byzantines, Mamluks and Crusaders.