“Hay Mountain” Population: 50,000
Other names: Süveydiye, St Symeon
***Samandağ was one of the towns worst hit by the 2023 earthquakes. I have not been back there since.***
A small Hatay town south of Antakya, Samandağ is hardly a place of great beauty. Despite the fact that it (or more accurately the suburb of Deniz) was the medieval port for the great city of Antioch (Antakya) after the harbour at Seleucia Pieria (Çevlik) silted up, there’s nothing of historical interest left here to detain visitors.
However, it is the main transit hub for the area and you may have to pause here briefly while heading for Vakıflı, Çevlik, or Deniz. Uzunbağ, the village that is home to St Simeon’s Monastery, is on the road between Antakya and Samandağ. The old harbour may have taken its name from the stylite saint who lived at the monastery or from his better known role model, St Simeon of Aleppo, which is not far away over the Syrian border.
Samandağ is a largely Alevi/Alawi town with strong leftist sympathies betrayed in the graffiti and some of the place names here. Three of the young men who died during the Gezi Park protests of 2013 came from this part of the country.
Nearby Deniz is effectively the seaside suburb of Samandağ.
Transport info
Frequent minibuses to Samandağ leave from the main road more or less in front of Antakya‘s local bus terminal. Some of them continue to Deniz or to Çevlik.