Antioch on the Orontes

The city where the name 'Christian' originated and the home base for Paul's missionary journeys, making it the launching pad for the spread of Christianity across the Roman Empire.

Antioch on the Orontes was one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. Seleucus I Nicator founded it around 300 BCE after the death of Alexander the Great. He named it after his father Antiochus. The city sat along the Orontes River in what is now southern Turkey, near the Syrian border. A nearby port called Seleucia Pieria gave Antioch access to Mediterranean trade routes. At its peak under Roman rule, Antioch held about 500,000 people and ranked third in the empire after Rome and Alexandria.

The Romans improved the city dramatically. Emperor Augustus sponsored major building projects. His general Agrippa built a road and colonnaded streets. Herod the Great, king of Judea, paved one of the main streets with marble and added a colonnade, according to the historian Josephus. Later emperors added baths, theaters, temples, and a famous hippodrome. An earthquake in 526 CE destroyed much of the city and killed many thousands of people. Antioch never fully recovered.

Princeton University launched the first major excavation from 1932 to 1939. The team included scholars from several American and French institutions. They could not dig under the modern city of Antakya, which covers most of ancient Antioch. Instead they worked in areas outside the city center. The Princeton team found the most important collection of Roman floor mosaics ever discovered in one place. More than 300 mosaics came out of villas, baths, and public buildings. They show hunting scenes, mythological stories, portraits, and geometric patterns. These mosaics are now in several museums, with the largest share at the Hatay Archaeology Museum in Antakya and others at Princeton, Baltimore, and Paris.

The excavators also uncovered a section of the colonnaded main street, which ancient writers described as one of the finest in the Roman Empire. They found evidence of the harbor installations at Seleucia Pieria, including a tunnel cut through rock to divert a river and protect the port. This harbor is mentioned in Acts 13:4, where Paul and Barnabas sailed from there on the first missionary journey.

The Cave Church of St. Peter sits carved into the hillside of Mount Starius just outside Antakya. Tradition says this is where early Christians met in secret. The cave itself is ancient, and a mosaic floor fragment inside dates to at least the 4th or 5th century CE. The Catholic Church recognizes it as one of the oldest churches in Christendom. It was declared a national monument by Turkey and is open to visitors.

Excavations at Seleucia Pieria, the harbor city, uncovered more mosaics, coins, and pottery that confirm the city's active use through the New Testament period. After the 2023 earthquake that devastated the Hatay region, portions of ancient remains and the Hatay Archaeology Museum suffered damage. Preservation work is ongoing.

Despite the rich finds, much of ancient Antioch lies buried under the modern city and cannot be dug. Ancient writers like Libanius, Strabo, and John Chrysostom describe the city's layout, temples, streets, and churches in detail, filling some gaps that archaeology cannot yet reach.

• More than 300 Roman floor mosaics from villas and public buildings, now spread across museums in Antakya, Princeton, Baltimore, and Paris, representing the largest single collection of Roman mosaics ever recovered
• Section of the famous colonnaded main street of Antioch, described by ancient writers as one of the grandest in the empire
• Rock-cut tunnel at Seleucia Pieria harbor used to protect the port from flooding, showing advanced Roman engineering at the city's primary sea outlet
• Cave Church of St. Peter on Mount Starius, an ancient cave traditionally used for early Christian worship, with mosaic floor fragments dating to the 4th-5th century CE
• Coins, pottery, and inscriptions confirming the city's continuous occupation from the Seleucid period through Byzantine times
• Evidence of the destruction caused by the 526 CE earthquake that ended Antioch's status as a major imperial city

Antioch on the Orontes appears many times in the New Testament and sits at the center of early Christian history. Acts 11:19-26 says believers scattered from Jerusalem after Stephen's death traveled to Antioch and began preaching to Gentiles there. Barnabas came from Jerusalem to check on this new Gentile church, then went to Tarsus to find Paul and bring him back. Acts 11:26 records that it was in Antioch that followers of Jesus were first called Christians. This single verse makes Antioch the birthplace of the word that would define a worldwide religion. Acts 13:1-3 names the prophets and teachers at Antioch, including Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, and Paul. The Holy Spirit told the church there to send Paul and Barnabas on what became the first missionary journey. They left from the harbor at Seleucia Pieria, the port now confirmed by excavation. Paul returned to Antioch after each of his three journeys, reporting back to the church that had sent him. Galatians 2:11 records a sharp conflict in Antioch when Peter visited, and Paul opposed him to his face over table fellowship with Gentiles. This shows Antioch as a city where the early church worked out its most important questions about faith, identity, and Jewish-Gentile relations.