
Massive Quakes in Turkey and Syria Damage Gaziantep Castle, Heritage Sites
A pair of earthquakes measuring 7.8 and 7.5, respectively, on the Richter scale killed more than 5,000 people in southeast Turkey and northern Syria on February 6 and caused significant damage not only to residential and commercial structures but to the countries’ heritage sites.
Chief among them is the Gaziantep Castle, which sits atop a hill in southeastern Turkey and is considered one of the country’s best-preserved citadels. Dating to the second millennium BCE, when the Hittite Empire was in power, the stone edifice was originally built as a watchtower. The structure was built out by the