Hatay Province
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Hatay Province Hatay ili |
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|---|---|
| Province of Turkey | |
 Location of Hatay Province in Turkey |
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| Country | Turkey |
| Region | Mediterranean |
| Subregion | Hatay |
| Provincial seat | Antakya |
| Largest city | İskenderun |
| Government | |
| • Electoral district | Hatay |
| Area | |
| • Total | 5,524 km2 (2,133 sq mi) |
| Population | |
| • Total | 1,480,571 |
| • Density | 270/km2 (690/sq mi) |
| Area code(s) | 0326 |
| Vehicle registration | 31 |
| Website | www |
Hatay Province (Turkish: Hatay ili, pronounced [ˈhataj]) is a province in southern Turkey, on the eastern Mediterranean coast. The administrative capital is Antakya (Antioch), and the other major city in the province is the port city of İskenderun (Alexandretta). It is bordered by Syria to the south and east and the Turkish provinces of Adana and Osmaniye to the north. The province is part of Çukurova (Cilicia), a geographical, economical and cultural region that covers the provinces of Mersin, Adana, Osmaniye, and Hatay. There are border crossing points with Syria in the district of Yayladağı and at Cilvegözü in the district of Reyhanlı. Sovereignty over the province remains disputed with neighbouring Syria, which claims that the province was separated from itself against the stipulations of the French Mandate of Syria in the years following Syria's independence from the Ottoman Empire after World War I. Although the two countries have remained generally peaceful in their dispute over the territory, Syria has never formally renounced its claims to it.
Settled since the early Bronze Age, Hatay was once part of the Akkadian Empire, then the Amorite Kingdom of Yamhad an Mitannis, then a succession of Hittites, the Neo-Hittite "Hattena" people that later gave the modern province of Hatay its name, then the Assyrians (except a brief occupation by Urartu) and Persians. The region was the center of the Hellenistic Seleucid empire, home to the four Greek cities of the Syrian tetrapolis (Antioch, Seleucia Pieria, Apamea, and Laodicea). From 64 BC onwards the city of Antioch became an important regional centre of the Roman Empire.
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