Antioch

Antioch was a city located in northern Syria at the site of modern Antakya, Turkey. Founded in 300 BC, Antioch became one of the most important cities of the ancient eastern Mediterranean. The capital of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, it remained significant under the Roman and Byzantine Empires, and during the Crusades was the centre of the Principality of Antioch.

Seleucus I Nicator, a successor of Alexander the Great, founded Antioch alongside three other cities to secure the surrounding region, which he had recently conquered. He chose a site on the Orontes River in the southwest Amuq plain, a fertile lowland which provided valuable resources for Antioch; the city was strategically located and came to dominate trade routes. It served as the Seleucid capital from 240 BC until 63 BC, when the Romans took control; it was thereafter the capital of Roman Syria. Antioch may have been inhabited by over 500,000 inhabitants at its peak, making the city the third largest in the Roman Empire after Rome and Alexandria.

The city was the main center of Hellenistic Judaism at the end of the Second Temple period. As one of the cities of the pentarchy, Antioch was called "the cradle of Christianity" as a result of its longevity and the pivotal role that it played in the emergence of early Christianity. The Christian New Testament asserts that the name "Christian" first emerged in Antioch. From the early 4th century, Antioch was the seat of the comes Orientis, head of the Diocese of the East. The city declined to relative insignificance during the Middle Ages due to warfare, repeated earthquakes, and a change in trade routes. The remains of the ancient city of Antioch are mostly buried beneath alluvial deposits from the Orontes River.

The city still lends its name to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, one of the most important modern churches of the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean. The city also attracts Muslim pilgrims who visit the Habib-i Nejjar Mosque, which they believe to contain the tomb of Habib the Carpenter, mentioned in surah Yā-Sīn of the Quran.