Iskenderun, formerly known in the west as Alexandretta, is a city in the Turkish province of Hatay. It is located on the Mediterranean coast at the foot of the Amonos Mountains in the far southeast of Turkey. The current population is around 230,000.

Iskenderun preserves the name, but probably not the exact site, of Alexandria ad Issum, founded by Alexander the Great in 333 BC, about 23 miles south of the scene of his victory, to supersede Myriandrus as key of the Syrian Gates. The importance of the place ever since has been derived from its relation to this pass, the easiest approach to the open ground of Hatay and Northern Syria. As the main outlet for the overland trade from Baghdad and India, whose importance was great until the establishment of the Egyptian overland route, the place was a great resort, first of Genoese and Venetian merchants, then of those of West and North European nations. The British Levant Company maintained an agency and factory here for 200 years, until 1825, in spite of appalling mortality among its employees.

France overprinted Syrian postage stamps and issued them in 1938; this 4-piastre value was used sometime in 1939.

After the First World War the Sanjak of Alexandretta became part of the French Mandate territory, but Turkey demanded its return as the area was ethnically divided between Turks, Syrians, and large numbers of Alawites. In July of 1939, much to the disgust of the Syrians, France ceded the Sanjak of Alexandretta to Turkey, largely to secure Turkey's friendship in the upcoming European conflict. Since then Syria has continued to claim the region as rightfully theirs.

Today it is an important industrial centre, the end of the long oil pipeline running from northern Iraq. It is Turkey's largest port on the Mediterranean.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

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