The Current catastrophic earthquake in the Turkish and Syrian regions has claimed about 22,000 lives. Yet, more victims are still being unearthed from the extensive rubble.
And the figure is likely to increase. However, this disaster has come with some history. An earthquake of similar or worse dimension occured in this same area ages ago.
The past earthquake and disaster in this same axis historically occured in the year 1114 as the Marash earthquake, with casualty figures put at over 40,000, way back then. Marash was then a prominent city boasting a large Christian population.
Contemporary sources state that the city was underground. Mathew of Edessa, an Armenian historian in the 12th Century, records the massively tragic natural earthquake. He also chronicled other occurrences at this period including battles between Byzantines and Arabs to possess areas of northern Syria and eastern Asia Minor.
The historic Asian Minor area is a large peninsula in Western Asia, a Westernmost extension of continental Asia. And presently, this land mass of Anatolia covers the largest part of the region of present-day Turkey.
Mathew of Edessa, from way back, recorded that the earthquake left no survivors, unlike present deadly earthquake yielding at least a number of victims alive.
Meanwhile, in the Northwest part of Syria where the earthquake has now occured, the area has also been under rebel forces control. And the present calamity is an additional strain of unthinkable emotional proportions to the dwellers.
Simply put, this part of the world has a history of natural disasters, an agelong record of earthquakes, going back to the years and kingdoms of the Hitites and Mesopotamia city states.
