For nearly two weeks, Mehmet Ismet has lived in the ruins of Antakya s most beloved historic mosque, a landmark in a now-devastated city that was famed for thousands of years as a meeting place of civilizations and revered by Christians, Muslims and Jews.
The two massive earthquakes on Feb. 6 spread destruction across southern Turkey, but the devastation in Antakya stands out. The once thriving modern metropolis of nearly 400,000 people - and a cradle of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman history - belongs now to the birds and earth-moving machines.