| İskenderun | |
|---|---|
| — City — | |
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İskenderun
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Turkey |
| Region | Mediterranean |
| Province | Hatay |
| Elevation | 4 m (13 ft) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 201,183 |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) |
| • Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) |
| Postal code | 31 |
| Area code(s) | (0)326 |
| Licence plate | 31 |
| Website | http://www.iskenderun.bel.tr |
İskenderun is a city and urban district in the province of Hatay on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. The current mayor is Yusuf Hamit Civelek (CHP).
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In antiquity, the city was known as Alexandretta (in Ancient Greek, Ἀλεξανδρέττα). At its founding, it was named in honour of Alexander the Great, a name which it retained during the Roman period. The city was later renamed al-ʼIskandarūn (Arabic الإسكندرون) during the Islamic Caliphate and then to İskenderun after the Ottoman conquest.
İskenderun is located on the eastern Mediterranean coast on Gulf of İskenderun at the foot of the Nur Mountains (Amanos Mountains).
İskenderun is a busy commercial centre, the largest city in Hatay Province, surpassing the Hatay provincial seat of Antakya. The city is one of Turkey's largest ports on the Mediterranean and an important industrial centre home to the İsdemir steelworks, one of Turkey's largest. İskenderun has an active, modern life with good hotels, restaurants and cafes along the palm-lined sea front, and there is a variety of accommodation for visitors. İskenderun is also an important naval training base.
The climate on this stretch of the Mediterranean is hot and humid in summer, when people escape to the countryside or to the beach. At certain times of the year the town is swept by the strong wind called 'Yarıkkaya'. The countryside contains large areas of fruit groves, important producers of oranges, tangerines and lemons, and even tropical fruits such as mangoes. Winters are mild and wet.
| Climate data for İskenderun | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 24.0 (75.2) |
26.4 (79.5) |
31.7 (89.1) |
36.0 (96.8) |
40.0 (104.0) |
37.6 (99.7) |
37.2 (99.0) |
38.8 (101.8) |
40.0 (104.0) |
37.4 (99.3) |
31.2 (88.2) |
26.5 (79.7) |
40 (104.0) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 15.4 (59.7) |
16.1 (61.0) |
18.7 (65.7) |
22.3 (72.1) |
25.5 (77.9) |
28.5 (83.3) |
30.7 (87.3) |
31.5 (88.7) |
30.3 (86.5) |
27.1 (80.8) |
21.7 (71.1) |
17.1 (62.8) |
23.74 (74.74) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 8.6 (47.5) |
9.0 (48.2) |
11.3 (52.3) |
14.7 (58.5) |
18.4 (65.1) |
22.0 (71.6) |
25.0 (77.0) |
25.7 (78.3) |
23.3 (73.9) |
18.9 (66.0) |
13.8 (56.8) |
10.2 (50.4) |
16.74 (62.14) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −0.8 (30.6) |
−0.3 (31.5) |
0.4 (32.7) |
5.1 (41.2) |
11.2 (52.2) |
14.8 (58.6) |
18.6 (65.5) |
18.6 (65.5) |
15.4 (59.7) |
2.5 (36.5) |
2.4 (36.3) |
0.8 (33.4) |
−0.8 (30.6) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 88.4 (3.48) |
90.6 (3.567) |
86.8 (3.417) |
63.8 (2.512) |
48.0 (1.89) |
35.9 (1.413) |
12.1 (0.476) |
18.9 (0.744) |
41.9 (1.65) |
84.8 (3.339) |
90.5 (3.563) |
90.9 (3.579) |
752.6 (29.63) |
| % humidity | 61 | 63 | 66 | 69 | 72 | 74 | 74 | 72 | 67 | 65 | 63 | 63 | 67.4 |
| Avg. rainy days | 11.9 | 11.3 | 11.4 | 9.4 | 6.9 | 3.3 | 3.1 | 3.7 | 6.1 | 9.0 | 8.7 | 11.1 | 95.9 |
| Sunshine hours | 130.2 | 142.8 | 189.1 | 216 | 279 | 309 | 294.5 | 288.3 | 264 | 232.5 | 168 | 124 | 2,637.4 |
| Source no. 1: Devlet Meteoroloji İşleri Genel Müdürlüğü [1] | |||||||||||||
| Source no. 2: Weatherbase [2] | |||||||||||||
Distinctive İskenderun dishes include Künefe, a hot dessert with cheese. The main dishes include the Turkish staples such as döner and other kebabs served in the flat dürüm bread, lahmacun, and also Antakya influenced cuisine including kibbeh, and sour pomegranate syrup used as a salad dressing. İskenderun in particular offers good quality fish and prawns.
İskenderun preserves the name, but probably not the exact site, of Alexandria ad Issum (İskender being the Arabic rendering of Alexander). The settlement was founded by Alexander the Great in 333 BC to supersede Myriandrus as the key to the Syrian Gates, about 23 miles south of the scene of his victory at the Battle of Issus. The importance of the place ever since has derived from its relation to this pass, the easiest approach to the open ground of Hatay Province and of Northern Syria, and the Romans continued to fight with Persia for control of this area during their era of dominance.
Alexander camped at the high-lands of İskenderun, around Esentepe, and then ordered the city to be established and named "Alexandria". İskenderun is one of many cities founded by Alexander's orders, including Alexandria.
The area was still a scene of fighting under the Ottomans, as it was here in 1606 that the army of general Kuyucu Murat Pasha suppressed the rural uprising of Celali Canbulatoğlu. The Ottomans continued to fortify the city and the remains of early 17th century Ottoman castle walls can still be seen, (where the Güzün stream crosses the Varyant road). The city was well described in 1675 by the English naval chaplain Henry Teonge in his diary. The next army to cross the Pass of Belen and attack Anatolia through here were the Egyptians of Muhammad Ali in 1832.
However in the later Ottoman period the city grew and grew as the main outlet for the overland trade from Baghdad and India, which had great importance until the establishment of the Egyptian overland route. Iskenderun served as a base first of Genoese and Venetian merchants, then West and North European merchants. The British Levant Company maintained an agency and factory here for 200 years, until 1825, in spite of appalling mortality among its employees. During the 19th century the port grew, the railway was built in 1912, and the road to Aleppo was improved.
At the outset of World War I when Britain was contemplating the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, Lord Kitchener considered the conquest of Alexandretta to be essential in providing Britain with a port and railhead from which to access Iraq. He proposed a new railway from Alexandretta which would greatly reduce the time for reaching India from the UK. The de Bunsen Committee (8 April - 30 June 1915), a British inter-departmental group which was set up to discuss the issue in greater detail, preferred Haifa for this purpose.[3]
Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War most of Hatay including İskenderun was occupied by French troops and in 1921 was established as the autonomous Sanjak of Alexandretta within French-controlled Syria. This led to the foundation of the Republic of Hatay. In 1939, the Republic of Hatay joined with the Republic of Turkey, after a referendum. See Hatay Province for a detailed history of this era.
Iskenderun is served by the Güney Gazetesi newspaper
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