Minnesota Travel Gal: Antakya road trip

A few weeks ago, Donna, Kerry, Stacey, and I rented a co-worker's car and drove to Antakya, Turkey. Antakya is an important historical place in the country. We stayed at a very nice boutique hotel that used to be home to the Syrian president in the 1920s. We first went to the Antakya bazaar where we enjoyed some shopping and the local kebap. Antakya is known for kunefe, a Turkish dessert made with cheese and sugar water (it's kind of like a sweet mozzarella stick). After lunch, we began the hunt for the best kunefe in Antakya. We then made our way to the mosaic museum in the city. Unfortunately, many of the mosaics were covered and several rooms were closed for restoration. We did see some amazing examples of mosaics found in the area.

We then wanted to go see the cave church right outside Antakya, but were unable to due to restoration. Donna drove us around until we could find a decent view. The arch-holes in the rock you can see are the remnants of the cave church.

After the mosaics museum, we drove to the nearby town of Harbiye to explore some more. While the others were doing a waterfall hike, I explored some of the "ipek" shops on the silk road. Harbiye is known for having the best kunefe and food in the area, so we took a recommendation from a Turkish friend and went to a restaurant to enjoy a nice meal. I got there just in time to enjoy a beautiful sunset.

Mezze plate, with humus, eggplant dip, olive salad, yogurt, and other starters

The following day, we drove all around the area trying to find many of the historical sights. We started off by walking around the Antakya city center in the morning to find the churches and synogogues; unfortunately, they were not open at the time we wanted to go inside. We did see the oldest mosque in Turkey, Necci-de-Habbab mosque.

Inside the mosque

After our city center walk around, we ventured out to find St. Simeon's monastary. Donna drove us up around and all over a mountain before we got to our destination.

Driving around some windmills.

This monastary's claim to fame is that St. Simeon sat on a big pillar for 40 years. The reasons for him doing this are still not clear to me but hey, people did strange things a long time ago.

The famed pillar

Just want to see what all the fuss is about....

After visiting the monastary, we made our way to Vikifli, the only remaining Armenian village in Turkey that still has only Armenian people living in it. There we visited the church, which is the only church to be built in Turkey since 1923.

After the village, our final stop was to the Titus tunnel, which is what the Romans used for transporting water from the mountains to the city on the port.