Two devastating earthquakes jolted southeastern Türkiye on Feb. 6, bringing about some of the world’s strongest and deadliest natural disasters this century, leaving tens of thousands dead and destruction in their wake. Unfortunately, they also went to the past in ruins along with the present. Ancient churches, centuries-old mosques, castles, houses, and millennia of history turned into rubble.

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 famed for thousands of years as a meeting place of civilizations and revered by Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

The 74-year-old took refuge in the Habib Najjar mosque after a 7.7-magnitude – and hours later, a 7.6-magnitude – earthquake killed tens of thousands in Türkiye and Syria. He has slept and prayed under the few arches still standing, mourning the future of a city renowned for its past.

The destruction in Antakya was nearly total. Much of the city is rubble. What’s still standing is too unsafe to live in. Almost everyone has left. On Monday, a new 6.4 magnitude earthquake, centered in Hatay province where Antakya is located, struck again, killing people, injuring over 200, and causing more buildings to collapse, sometimes trapping people.

"It can be rebuilt. But it will not be like the old one," said Ismet, pointing to the mosque’s destruction, where he sat in the courtyard with a friend by a wood-burning heater. "The old is gone. Only the name remains."

Antakya, known as Antioch in ancient times, has been repeatedly destroyed by earthquakes and rebuilt over history. But residents fear it will be long before it recovers from this one and that its unique historical identity may never be fully restored. The destruction is so great.

Antioch, built in 300 B.C. by a general of Alexander the Great in the Orontes River valley, was one of the biggest cities of the Greco-Roman world, rivaling Alexandria and Constantinople. Saints Peter and Paul are said to have founded one of the oldest Christian communities here, and it’s here that the word "Christian" first came into use. It later drew Christian Crusader invaders and Muslims.

The melding of faiths is part of the city’s character.

A parable from the Quran kept running through Ismet’s mind. Three messengers from God came to a town, urging its sinful people to follow His word. They refused, and God destroyed the city with a mighty blast. The Quran doesn’t name the town, but many traditions say it was ancient Antioch.

Ismet saw a new lesson from the present-day devastation.

"All religions are here. We were living well. Then politics and hypocrisy prevailed, and disagreement followed," Ismet said. "People ... have disagreed and are robbing each other. God is punishing them."

The mosque can now be reached only by clambering over heaps of concrete and old stones that were once Antakya’s old city. It traces Antakya’s many histories: The site initially held an ancient pagan temple, then a church, before finally settling as a mosque, built in the 13th century. The mosque was destroyed in an earthquake in 1853 and rebuilt four years later by the Ottomans.

Even the legends surrounding Habib Najjar, the mosque’s unknown namesake, are intertwined with multiple faiths.

Ismet recounted one famous story: Najjar was a resident of Antioch who urged locals to believe God’s messengers referred to in the Quran. So they beheaded him, and his head rolled down the mountain to where the mosque now stands. Another version of the legend says Najjar was a believer in Jesus, whose disciples cured his son of leprosy, and was killed for promoting the new Christian faith.

"Maybe in one month, we will start the renovation or organization," Yahya Coşkun, deputy director general of Türkiye’s museums and cultural heritage, said about destroying the city’s landmarks.

"Antakya’s destruction is a loss to humanity," said Jan Estefan, a silversmith and one of the city’s few remaining Christians. "We still want to live here. We have no intention of leaving."

Antakya’s Greek Orthodox Church was destroyed. The church, which was the seat of the Greek Orthodox patriarch up until the 14th century, was leveled in an 1872 earthquake and rebuilt.

"History has once again been wiped out," said Fadi Hurigil, chairperson of the board of directors of Antakya Greek Orthodox Church Foundation.

Mountains of rubble cut off old mosques. The old bazaar lay in ruins. Crushed buildings line Kurtulus Street, said to have been the world’s first illuminated street when lit with torches at night in Roman times. Parts of the archaeological museum have been damaged.

Outside the city center, Mount Starius protected one of Christianity’s earliest churches – Saint Pierre – which was built in a cave in the mountain and had sections dating to the 4th century. Unfortunately, a set of stairs leading to it was damaged.

There were cracks in the walls of the Synagogue of Antakya, home to the area’s 2,500-year-old Jewish community. The city’s Jewish community’s president and wife didn’t survive. So about a dozen Jewish residents and the synagogue’s Torah scrolls were temporarily relocated to Istanbul, said Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, chairperson of the Alliance of Rabbis in the Islamic States.

Chitrik said it would be hard for the small, elderly community, whittled down by years of emigration, to rebuild. "However, I am certain that it will come back."

Many residents seem to have accepted it is their city’s fate to return from disaster.

"After seven times, they rebuilt and brought it to life again. Now is the eighth time, and God willing ... we will live in it again," said Bülent Cifcifli. His mother was killed in the quake, and it took a week to dig her body out.

In one shape or another, Antakya will survive, he said.

"Death is unavoidable. We will die, and new people will come," he said, choking on tears. "Who is Antakya? Today it is us. Tomorrow someone else."