Antiochia ad Taurum
Antiochia ad Taurum was a Hellenistic city in ancient Syria east of Mount Amanus of the Taurus mountain range. Later identified as 'ad Taurum montem' in the Commagene province of Syria.
Historical geography
Antiochia ad Taurum was located to the east of Mount Amanus, and in the Second Temple period, Jewish authors seeking to establish with greater precision the geographical borders of the Promised Land, began to construe Mount Hor as a reference to the Amanus range of the Taurus Mountains, which marked the northern limit of the Syrian plain.Most modern scholars locate Antiochia ad Taurum at or near Gaziantep in the westernmost part of present-day Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region, although past scholars tried to associate it with Aleppo, Syria. It has also been identified with Perrhe near Adıyaman.
Locating Antiochia ad Taurum at or near, the city lies in the Islahiye valley which connects the lower Orontes valley to the southern piedmont of the central Taurus Mountains. During the Bronze Age, the region belonged to the Inner Syrian cultural context, and held a highly strategic significance, over the course of time, for the connections between Upper Mesopotamian and Levantine lowlands on the one hand and the Anatolian highlands on the other.