The devastating earthquake of February 2023 which destroyed half the city of Antioch, and led to a large exodus from the city (including the whole of the Jewish population of the city) has left many of the residents who stayed living in container cabins, like the following:
So sadly the inaugural Antioch conference had to be held in nearby Iskenderun, because there were no hotels in Antioch available. Here are a couple of shots from the conference….
We did however visit Antioch and in particular the church of St. Peter, a Byzantine period cave church. 
Fortunately, it sustained very minor damage during the earthquake. 
The church is located well up a hill and is in fact carved out of the side of this mountain. Directly above it, had been various sorts of pagan worship, including the god Men, whose image carved into the side of basalt rock can still be seen today.
The church itself still has an altar and various evidences of Christian presence. In fact, the province of Hatay, which Antioch is in, has always prided itself about its respect for all three monotheistic religions, and so there are occasionally some Orthodox services on holy days here.
Yes that’s St. Pete in the niche above the altar. 
There are still pieces of the mosaic floor…
Notice as well the escape hatch to the right of the altar, in case of intruders.
You will notice however no crosses anywhere. Muslims do not believe God would allow a holy prophet like Jesus to die in such a shameful way. As it turns out we got lucky because just down the hill, the Museum Hotel’s museum had just opened that very day, so we got to go visit it once more and will do so in our next post. The caves in the picture above were where hermit monks spent time in meditation and prayer.
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