July 9, 557 Earthquake: Antakya (Antioch), Turkey

Name: July 9, 557 Earthquake: Antakya (Antioch), Turkey
Start: 0557-07-09
Location: Antakya (Antioch), Turkey

July 9, 557

An earthquake struck Antakya (Antioch), Turkey on July 9, 557.

Map

Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.

The earthquake

Date: July 9, 557
Place: Antakya (Antioch), Turkey
Intensity: 10 on the Modified Mercalli scale
Tsunami: None recorded
Epicenter: 36.100° N, 36.100° E
Country: Turkey

The toll

Damage: Severe (about $5 to $25 million)
Houses destroyed: Many (101 to 1,000)

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

557-558. Antioch. An earthquake occurred in Antioch. No details are known, but it is possible that the walls were badly damaged or breached by the shocks... It is possible that the walls were breached, either in this or in a previous earthquake since, when Persian troops raided as far as Antioch in AD 573, the people fled because the walls were ruined and could not be defended (Downey 1961a, 558). (reference #9116)

557, July 9. Antioch severely damaged. Intensity VII-X. (reference #1222)

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

Significant earthquakes of 557 The 500s Recent earthquakes near here This day in weather history

Sources

Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-09-24. NCEI earthquake 145.