Last Weekend in Hatay

Knowing that we would be working on Sunday to finish up our report for our project, we headed out for a tour of the areas around Antakya on Saturday to see some of the local sights.  The history and variety of the sights is impressive.  We crammed as much as we could into a day.

We started at a Templar Knight castle built around 1100 AD - it is perched on a low mountain and while it is "in ruins", it was still impressive in scale as we climbed around it.

We then went to a area used by the locals in the summer called Harbiye, it is section of forest on a mountainside with a number of waterfalls.  It made for a relaxing walk and we were treated to some homemade bread at the end of our walk which was exceptionally good.

Also in Harbiye, we visited a silk factory and saw the end-to-end process from silk work to scarf.  Much silk scarf shopping was done at this location by all.

We then ventured to Saint Simone's Monastery - it is on the hills to the south of Antakya and in stark contrast has giant wind turbines surrounding it.  From here you can see straight the coast and the Mediterranean.

Our next stop was the Titus Tunnel in Samendag.  This tunnel was built around 50 AD and was a channel to re-route water from the mountain so as to avoid silt plugging the harbour.  From here we could also see the mountains that separate Turkey & Syria.  This was our last stop and we enjoyed a fresh fish dinner at a seaside restaurant.

On a more somber note....we found out about the earthquake on Sunday that occurred in Eastern Turkey.  We were not affected at all and our thoughts go to those Turkish people impacted by the tragedy.