Geographical Location

Geography:
46% of the land is mountain, 33% plain and 20% plateau and hillside. The most prominent feature is the north-south leading Nur Mountains and the highest peak is Mıgırtepe (2240m), other peaks include Ziyaret Mountain and Keldag (Jebel Akra or Casius) at 1739 m. The folds of land that make up the landscape of the province were formed as the land masses of Arabian-Nubian Shield and Anatoliahave pushed into each other, meeting here in Hatay, a classic example of the Horst–graben formation. The Orontes River rises in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon and runs through Syria and Hatay, where it reserves the Karasu and the Afrin River. It flows into the Mediterranean at its delta in Samandağ. There was a lake in the plain of Amik but this was drained in the 1970s, and today Amik is now the largest of the plains and an important agricultural center. The climate is typical of the Mediterranean, with warm wet winters and hot, dry summers. The mountain areas inland are drier than the coast. There are some mineral deposits, İskenderun is home to Turkey's largest iron and steel plant, and the district of Yayladağı produces a colourful marble called Rose of Hatay.

Climate
Hatay has a Mediterranean climate which has very hot, long and dry summers with cool rainy winters.

Source: Turkish State Meteorological Service

Demography:
Majority of population adheres to Islam belonging to either Alawi branch of Shia Islam or Sunni Islam. But other minorities are also found including Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholics,Maronites, Arab (Greek-Orthodox) and Armenian communities. The village of Vakıflı in the district of Samandag is Turkey's last remaining rural Armenian community while Arabs form the majority in three districts out of the twelve: Samandag (Suwaidiyyah) (Alawi), Altınözü (Qusair) and Reyhanlı (Rihaniyyah) (Sunni). Unlike most Mediterranean provinces, Hatay has not experienced mass migration from other parts of Turkey in recent decades and has therefore preserved much of its traditional culture; for example, Arabic is still widely spoken in the province. To celebrate this cultural mix, in 2005 "Hatay Meeting of Civilisations" congress was organised by Dr Aydın Bozkurt of Mustafa Kemal University and his "Hatay Association for the Protection of Universal Values". Hatay is traversed by the north-easterly line of equal latitude and longitude.

Education
Mustafa Kemal University is one of Turkey's newer tertiary institutions, founded in İskenderun and Antakya in 1992.

Languages
Until annexation, Turkish and Arabic were both spoken, after Ataturk's Reforms, however, the use of Arabic began to decline. Some Arabic speakers will deny being "Arab," a term that can be derogatory in Turkey. Turkey's policies on language have focused on imposing homogeneity. The degree of imposition peaked in 1983, when the military government introduced a law prohibiting (to varying degrees) languages other than Turkish. For speakers of some languages (those not using a first official language of a country recognized by Turkey), the law forbade the use of those languages, even during private conversation. (Rumpf, 1989) Although the law was repealed in 1991, the Constitution still prohibits any institution from teaching a language other than Turkish as a mother tongue (Article 42.9; provisions in international treaties are ostensibly upheld even today). 85% of Arabs in Hatay believe that the use of Arabic is decreasing, however, 15% who hear it on a daily basis, disagree that such is happening in the region. The Arab Christian minority has the right to teach Arabic under the Treaty of Lausanne, however they tend to refrain from doing so in order to avoid sectarian tensions as the treaty does not apply to the Muslim majority. 

Districts
Hatay province is divided into 15 districts:

• Altınözü,
• Antakya,
• Belen,
• Dörtyol,
• Erzin,
• Hassa,
• İskenderun,
• Kırıkhan,
• Kumlu,
• Reyhanlı,
• Samandağ and
• Yayladağı.
• Defne
• Arsuz
• Payas

Cuisine
Hatay is warm enough to grow tropical crops such as sweet potato and sugar cane, and these are used in the local cuisine, along with other local specialities including a type of cucumber/squash called kitte. Well-known dishes of Hatay include the syrupy-pastry künefe, squash cooked in onions and tomato paste (sıhılmahsi), the aubergine and yoghurt paste (Baba ghanoush), and the chick-pea paste hummus as well as dishes such as kebab which are found throughout Turkey. In general the people of Hatay produce lots of spicy dishes including the walnut and spice paste muhammara), the spicy köfte called oruk, the thyme and parsley paste Za'atar and the spicy sun-dried cheese called Surke. Finally, syrup of pomegranate (nar ekşisi) is a popular salad dressing particular to this area.

Landmarks
World’s second-largest collection of Roman mosaics in Antakya museum 
Rock-carved Church of St Peter in Antakya, a site of Christian pilgrimage.
Gündüz cinema, once parliament building of the Republic of Hatay.
Titus Tunnel of Vespasian, in Samandağı, built as a water channel in the 2nd century.