Belen
Belen is one of the 15 districts of Hatay province. It is located in the Amanos Mountains. Belen is a settlement that gives its name to the "Belen Passage", one of the most important passages of Turkey. Belen is at an altitude of ~500 meters, its pass is about 5 km ahead after the Kıcı quarter. It is at an altitude of 740 meters in the Gedik Nur Mountains. Before the First World War, 1,791 Armenians lived in Beylan, which is located on the road connecting Iskenderun to Antakya. There was a church here and a school with 180 students. Built in steps around the mountain pass, Beylan witnessed the passage of Alexander the Great in Issus, on the plain below, as he prepared to fight the Persian King Darius/Dara (333 BC). Armenians were mostly engaged in sericulture and weaving. City organizations of Belen date back to 1516, during the reign of Yavuz Sultan Selim. Belen became a district (district) of the Province of Aleppo during the Ottoman period. Belen, which was turned into a sub-district (township) of the Iskenderun district with the annexation of Hatay to Turkey, became a district on May 7, 1990 with the law numbered 3644.
