İskenderun

İskenderun ( ar, الإسكندرونة, el, Αλεξανδρέττα "Little Alexandria"), historically known as Alexandretta and Scanderoon, is a city in Hatay Province on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

Names

The city was founded as Alexandria (Ἀλεξάνδρεια) to commemorate Alexander the Great’s victory over the Persian Darius III at Issus (Cilicia) in (333 BC).

Starting in the Middle Ages, Western pilgrims used the diminutive Romance form Alexandretta.

After the Muslim conquest of Syria, it was named ''al-ʼIskandarūn'' (Arabic الإسكندرون), the Arabic rendering of the original "Alexandrou"; this name was further turkified into Ottoman Turkish as İskenderūn (إسكندرون), which in turn was preserved in its current modern Turkish form as İskenderun.

Geography

İskenderun is located on the eastern Mediterranean coast on the Gulf of İskenderun, at the foot of the Nur Mountains (Amanos Mountains).

İskenderun is a busy commercial centre and is one of the largest cities in Hatay Province, similar in size to the provincial seat of Antakya. The city is one of Turkey's largest ports on the Mediterranean and an important industrial centre, home to the İsdemir steelworks, one of Turkey's largest. İskenderun has an active, modern life with good hotels, restaurants and cafes along the palm-lined sea front. There is a variety of accommodation for visitors. İskenderun is also an important naval training base.

Climate

İskenderun has hot, dry summers, and mild, moderately rainy winters (''Köppen: Csa,'' Trewartha'': Cs''). At certain times of the year the town is swept by a strong wind called 'Yarıkkaya'. The countryside contains large areas of fruit groves. It is an important producer of oranges, tangerines and lemons, and even tropical fruits such as mangoes.

Cuisine

Distinctive İskenderun dishes include Künefe, a hot dessert with cheese. The main dishes include the Turkish staples such as döner and other kebabs served in the flat dürüm bread, lahmacun and also Antakya influenced cuisine including kibbeh, and sour pomegranate syrup used as a salad dressing. İskenderun in particular offers good quality fish and prawns.

History

Antiquity

İskenderun preserves the name, but probably not the exact site, of ''Alexandria ad Issum''. The settlement was founded by Alexander the Great in 333 BC to supersede Myriandus as the key to the Syrian Gates, about 37 km (23 miles) south of the scene of his victory at the Battle of Issus against the Persian King Darius III. Alexander camped in the highlands of İskenderun, around ''Esentepe'', and then ordered the city to be established and named ''Alexandria''. İskenderun is one of many cities founded on Alexander's orders, including Alexandria, Egypt. A memorial, a monument and a bronze statue for the victory raised at the city, and Herodian writes that they were there even at his time.

The importance of the place comes from its relation to the Syrian Gates, the easiest approach to the open ground of Hatay Province and Aleppo.

Ecclesiastical history

The bishopric of Alexandria Minor was a suffragan of Anazarbus, the capital and so also the ecclesiastical metropolis of the Roman province of Cilicia Secunda. Greek menologia speak of Saint Helenus, and the martyr saints Aristio and Theodore as early bishops of the See. But the first documented one is Hesychius, who took part in the First Council of Nicaea in 325 and in a synod at Antioch in 341. Philomusus participated in the First Council of Constantinople in 381. Baranes is mentioned in connection with a synod at Antioch in 445. At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, Julianus was represented by his metropolitan, Cyrus of Anazarbus. Basilius was at the synod in Constantinople in 459 that condemned simoniacs. In 518, Paulus was deposed by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian for supporting the Jacobite Severus of Antioch.

No longer a residential diocese, Alexandria Minor is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), p. 829 In that list it was long named Cambysopolis,''Catholic Encyclopedia'', 1908, ''s.v.'' Cambysopolis but the ''Annuario Pontificio'' now gives the correct ancient name.

Ottoman era

There was fighting here under the Ottoman Empire: in 1606 the army of General Kuyucu Murat Pasha suppressed the Jelali revolts. The Ottomans continued to fortify the city, and the remains of the early 17th-century Ottoman castle walls can still be seen where the Güzün stream crosses the Varyant road. The city was well described in 1675 by the English naval chaplain Henry Teonge in his diary. The next army to cross the Belen Pass and attack Anatolia through here were the Egyptians of Muhammad Ali in 1832.

However, in the later Ottoman period the city developed as the main port on the Mediterranean for the overland trade from Baghdad and India, which had great importance until the establishment of the Egyptian overland route. Iskenderun served as a base, first for Genoese and Venetian merchants, then Western and Northern European merchants. The British Levant Company maintained an agency and factory here for 200 years, until 1825, in spite of high mortality among its employees because of regional disease, some due to lack of sanitation systems. During the 19th century the port grew, and the road to Aleppo was improved. The railway was built in 1912.

At the outset of World War I, when Britain was contemplating the partition of the Ottoman Empire, Lord Kitchener considered the conquest of Alexandretta to be essential in providing Britain with a port and railhead from which to access Iraq. He proposed a new railway be built to the east from Alexandretta, which would greatly reduce the time for reaching India from the UK. The De Bunsen Committee (8 April - 30 June 1915), a British inter-departmental group which was set up to discuss the issue in greater detail, preferred Haifa for this purpose.

Ultimately the British decided not to attack the Ottoman Empire via Alexandretta. On 8 February 1915 the French foreign minister, Théophile Delcassé, protested to Britain's Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey about such an attack, citing a commitment that Britain made in 1912 that it had no designs on Syria. The German field marshal, Hindenburg, subsequently said that

Perhaps not the whole course of the war, but certainly the fate of our Ottoman Ally, could have been settled out of hand, if England had secured a decision in that region, or even seriously attempted it. Possession of the country south of the Tauras ountainswould have been lost to Turkey at a blow if the English had succeeded in landing at Alexandretta.

Armenians, who have maintained a cultural and economic presence in Iskenderun for centuries, most notably due to trade, were wiped out in the Hamidian Massacres, Adana Massacres, and the Armenian genocide, after centuries of discrimination.

Republic of Hatay

Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War, most of Hatay including İskenderun was occupied by French troops.

In July 1920 the San Remo conference assigned the Alexandretta sanjak to Turkey, although it connected to south Syria with its north-western corner. Between 1921 and 1937, the city was part of the autonomous Sanjak of Alexandretta within French-controlled Syria, under the League of Nations French Mandate of Syria and the Lebanon.

The Republic of Hatay was founded in 1938 and, in 1939, it joined the Republic of Turkey after a referendum. The referendum was, and still is, regarded as illegitimate by Syria, as the Turkish government moved supporters into the city and the Turkish Army "expelled most of the province's Alawite Arabs and Armenian majority" to decide the referendum result.

In the 2010s Syria still claimed against Turkey its sovereignty on the Alexandretta region.

Main sights

* Yakacık (Payas) contains a splendid example of Ottoman architecture dating to the 16th century: the külliye of Sokollu Mehmet Pasha comprising a mosque, Turkish bath (''hamam''), Dervish lodge, bazaar, caravanserai, and madrasa (Muslim school).
* The Cathedral of the Annunciation is the seat of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia.
* Soğukoluk, a mountain resort on the way to Antakya, is a quiet retreat from the heat of the coast in the summer months.
* Bakras (Bagras) Castle, which was built in antiquity and restored many times in later centuries (particularly during the Crusades, when it was a stronghold of the Knights Templar), served as a watchtower on the mountain road from İskenderun to Antakya (Antioch).
* Arsuz (Uluçınar), a holiday resort town on the coast to the south of İskenderun, has beautiful sandy beaches, a very warm sea, and places of historical interest. The coast is lined with holiday homes and there is accommodation in hotels or guest houses.

Sport

The city has two association football clubs. One of them is Körfez İskenderunspor. The more successful İskenderunspor folded in 2006, although a phoenix club İskenderunspor 1967 was then founded in 2009.

The city's basketball team is called İskenderun Belediyesi Spor Kulübü.

Media

İskenderun is served by the ''Güney Gazetesi'' newspaper.

Film

İskenderun is featured in the film ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' as an important starting point for the Grail map. The State of Hatay is depicted as being ruled by a Sultan, although it was technically a transitional republic.

Notable natives

* Nilüfer Çınar Çorlulu
*Erol Erdinç
*Cem Erman
*Helenus of Alexandria (Cilicia)
*Selçuk İnan
*Yalçın Küçük
* Yasin Özdenak
*Sarkis Soghanalian
*Jehan Barbur
*Uğur Şahin

See also

* Çukurova
* Hatay Province
* Names of Asian cities in different languages
* ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade''
*List of cities founded by Alexander the Great

References

Sources
*

İskenderun Guide

External links

İskenderun

İskenderun pictures

İskenderun News

Information on İskenderun


Catholic Church of İskenderun

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iskenderun

Çukurova
Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey
Mediterranean port cities and towns in Turkey
History of Hatay Province
Populated coastal places in Turkey
Populated places in Hatay Province
Fishing communities in Turkey
Jewish communities in Turkey
Districts of Hatay Province
Catholic titular sees in Asia
Cities founded by Alexander the Great
330s BC establishments
Levant