History’s River

The river Orontes passes through Antakya (Antioch) City that has a rooted history from Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods to Ottoman Empire, French mandate and Turkish Republic times. While the river is the reasoning of this prosperity and it is storing the layers of civilizations beneath its thick alluvial deposits, currently, it became a deep huge canal and the the ruins of the civilizations are disappearing under the dirt of the river. The river is evaluated as a burden by the community because of the problems of pollution and bad smell in the city center. Even though the river remembers all the past, the community lost its memory.

I, some friends and some students of mine visited the river with some intervals. We took pictures of the river whose original name is rebel but lost it feral character and turn into a sad river in the city center. We also visited the rural side of the river where it runs with joy and humour. Just as the river witnessed thousands of years of history, now we became the witness to its joy and sadness today. We build up imaginations for the future maybe by praying the goddess of fortune Tyche (the city’s goddess from Hellenistic period), once again.