Nature's Vengeance

Back in the late spring of 2012 I spent time in Antakya - Antioch of antiquity. A place of character, history, old churches, narrow streets, 8,000 years in the making ... Watching tonight's BBC news, it was numbing to see its destruction and plight, the city centre largely razed. One evening, waiting for a late flight to Istanbul, I remember a warm sociable rooftop dinner, Efes beer to hand, a sinking misty orange sun to the west, the fading bluish mountains and border with Syria to the east a few miles away. Happiness. Nature's vengeance is a terrible thing. 

9 February 2023

Turkish-Syrian Earthquake 6 February 2023, 4.17 am local time

47,000 dead