Ayşe Ersoy

The strengthening works are ongoing uninterruptedly in Türkiye's prominent Hatay Archaeology Museum, which sustained damage during the deadly earthquakes that jolted the country's southeast in early February last year.

Nearly 400 small artifacts in the Hatay Archaeology Museum, some of which got damaged during the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes in February, were sent to the Kırşehir Museum for protection against aftershocks.

Approximately 150 artifacts, weighing tons, are also preserved in their own places in the museum with a method of on-site preservation.

St. Pierre Church, considered a pilgrimage place for Christians and believed to be the world's first cave church by some sources, hosted over 62,000 visitors so far in 2021.

Located at the skirts of Mont Habib Neccar in Turkey's southern province of Hatay, the church was a meeting point for the believers of Jesus in the 1930s.

An ancient mosaic that was unearthed during excavations in the southern province of Hatay will be on display in November to visitors of the Hatay Archeological Museum, the head of the museum said Oct. 21.  

Excavations around a Christian cave church in southern Turkey are underway in a bid to demystify a long period going back to 300 B.C., when the ancient city of Antioch was founded.

Restoration and excavation work has resumed at the Saint Simon Monastery in southern Turkey after a pause of 60 years, and the site will host tourists once it is completed.

The monastery, located in Hatay province, is believed to have been built in the 6th century by Saint Simon.