Earthquakes damage archaeological sites

26 February 2023

In the two earthquakes that devastated south-east Turkey and north-west Syria on 6 February 2023, many of the inhabitants of high-rises built haphazardly by unscrupulous property developers were buried alive. Entire families perished under the rubble, while others lost everything. In addition to the terrible human toll, archaeological sites and historical buildings were badly damaged.

The castle located in the centre of the city of Gaziantep, 75 kilometres from Kahramanmaraş, the epicentre of the first earthquake, was heavily damaged. It was first built in the 2nd and 3rd centuries by the Romans, then enlarged in the 6th century under the Byzantine emperor Justinian, and subsequently surrounded by a wall flanked by twelve towers. Converted into a museum in 2022, it displays works from the Turkish War of Independence. The south and east bastions have large cracks, and part of the wall and the retaining wall on the castle side have collapsed. Near the castle, the dome and eastern wall of the 17th century Şirvani mosque have also collapsed.

In Antakya, the ancient city of Antioch, Turkey's oldest mosque, Habib-i Neccar, dating from 638 and rebuilt in 1275, now has only its four outer walls and the spire of the dome which is resting on the rubble of the prayer hall. The Greek Orthodox church, built in the 14th century and rebuilt in 1870 after an earthquake, now looks like a pile of ruins. Many old buildings in the city have collapsed, and others are showing worrying cracks. Antioch, founded in the 4th century BCE by Seleucus I, has regularly been destroyed by earthquakes, the deadliest of which, in 526 CE, killed 250,000 people.

The Yeni Camii mosque in the centre of Malatya, which burnt down at the end of the 19th century, and the Annunciation Cathedral in Iskenderun, built between 1858 and 1871 by the Carmelites, both collapsed. The damage at Arslantepe was less extensive, with a few mud-brick walls reported to have slipped slightly. We do not know whether these are the walls of the great temples and palace complex dating back to the 4th millennium, the Bronze Age citadel or the remains of the Neo-Hittite city. Several buildings and the ancient Roman wall of the Diyarbakır fortress and the Hevsel gardens overlooking the city were also damaged.

Other Turkish sites listed as Unesco World Heritage Sites do not appear to have suffered on the surface, but will need to be inspected after the snow has melted to detect any cracks that could endanger historic buildings. This is the case, for example, of Göbekli Tepe, 15 kilometres from Sanliurfa in the Germuş mountain range, whose monumental round and rectangular megalithic structures used for religious purposes date back to between 9600 and 8200 BCE. The same is true of the Nemrut Dağ, a temple-tomb and house of the gods with its gigantic statues, whose construction was ordered to glorify Antiochos I of Commagene (69-34 BCE).

In Syria, the Seljuk citadel of Aleppo, also a UNESCO World Heritage site, and its historic quarter have suffered extensive damage. The west tower of the surrounding wall has collapsed and some buildings have cracked. The Ottoman mill in the citadel and the entrance to the Mamluk tower have been partially destroyed, as has the dome of the minaret of the Ayyubid mosque. In Hama, historic facades in the old quarters have been damaged. The ruins of the Chmémis castle, built in 1228 and located not far from Salamyeh, were also damaged.

Many of these historical buildings had previously been destroyed by earthquakes – which are frequent in this region – and rebuilt, sometimes several times. Such natural disasters are already mentioned in cuneiform texts as a recurring and devastating phenomenon. An inscription by the Assyrian king Ashur-resh-ishi I (1132-1115) recounts how he rebuilt the towers of a temple in Nineveh that had been destroyed by earthquakes: "In those days, the towers of the great gate (...) which formerly, in the time of Salmanazar (I), King of Assyria, had been damaged by an earthquake, and which Salmanazar, a king who preceded me, had restored, were once again shaken by an earthquake in the time of Assur-dan (I), King of Assyria, my grandfather, these towers had been weakened and had fallen into disrepair."

We now have to think about restoring and rebuilding. This terrible disaster will live forever in the memories of the region's inhabitants. It should also not be forgotten by politicians and property developers, so that anti-seismic standards can be rigorously applied from now on.