Explore Ancient Anatolia

The Church of Saint Peter near Antakya (Antioch), Turkey, is composed of a cave carved into the mountainside on Mount Starius. This cave, which some believe was used by the very first Christians, is one of Christianity's oldest churches. + Saint Peter, according to the New Testament, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, leaders of the early Christian Church. The Roman Catholic Church considers him to be the first Pope, ordained by Jesus in the "Rock of My Church" dialogue in Matthew 16:18. The ancient Christian churches all venerate Peter as a major saint and associate him with founding the Church of Antioch and later the Church in Rome, but differ about the authority of his various successors in present-day Christianity. According to Christian tradition, Peter was crucified under Emperor Nero Augustus Caesar. It is traditionally held that he was crucified upside down at his own request, since he saw himself unworthy to be crucified in the same way as Jes...

The Antioch mosaics are a grouping of over 300 mosaic floors created around the 3rd century AD, and discovered during archaeological excavations of Antioch between 1932 and 1939 by a consortium of five museums and institutions. About half of the mosaics are housed at the Antakya Archaeological Museum, with others currently residing at the Worcester Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Baltimore Museum of Art, Harvard University and Princeton University Art Museum among others. The mosaics range in design from realistic imagery and scenes, to purely geometric patterns.

Titus Vespasianus Tunnel of Seleuceia ad Pierea, at Antioch’s ancient port near Samandag, to the southwest of Antakya, is a man-made canyon and canal built digging the rock during the 1st century A.D. to divert the river and prevent silting the harbor.