Kırıkhan is a town and district in the northeastern part of
Hatay Province,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
. The name ''Kırıkhan'' means "broken inn" in the
Turkish language
Turkish ( , ), also referred to as Turkish of Turkey (''Türkiye Türkçesi''), is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Significant sma ...
, perhaps a reference to one of the many lodgings that once lined the road. The town stands at the intersection of the route between
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 Ale ...
and
Aleppo, and the major east-west road between
Antakya
Antakya (), historically known as Antioch ( el, Ἀντιόχεια; hy, Անտիոք, Andiok), is the capital of Hatay Province, the southernmost province of Turkey. The city is located in a well-watered and fertile valley on the Orontes Rive ...
and
Kahramanmaraş.
The town was once part of the district of
Belen, but became a district in its own right in 1923 at the time of the
French Mandate
The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (french: Mandat pour la Syrie et le Liban; ar, الانتداب الفرنسي على سوريا ولبنان, al-intidāb al-fransi 'ala suriya wa-lubnān) (1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate fou ...
. Kırıkhan was annexed to Turkey in 1939 with the rest of Hatay.
It has 687.73 km
2 acreage, 32.3 °C of average summer temperature and 7.31 °C of average winter temperature.
The district’s major religious and touristic site is the Beyazid-i Bestami Külliyesi (Complex) on Darb-ı Sak Castle at Alabeyli village, which contains the tomb or
maqam of
Bayazid Bastami
Abū Yazīd Ṭayfūr bin ʿĪsā bin Surūshān al-Bisṭāmī (al-Basṭāmī) (d. 261/874–5 or 234/848–9), commonly known in the Iranian world as Bāyazīd Bisṭāmī ( fa, بایزید بسطامی), was a PersianWalbridge, John. "S ...
.
Notable Residents
*
Nerses Pozapalian was born in the town in 1937.
See also
*
Trapessac
Trapessac ( tr, Darbı Sak Kalesi) is a medieval fortress located 4 km north of the town of Kırıkhan in Hatay Province, Turkey. Trapessac was constructed in the 12th century by the Knights Templar and, together with the nearby fortress at Bag ...
References
Populated places in Hatay Province
Districts of Hatay Province
Towns in Turkey
{{Hatay-geo-stub