Mapping the Damage From the Earthquake in Turkey and Syria
One of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded in Turkey struck on Monday, killing thousands of people and devastating a densely populated region of southern Turkey and northern Syria.
Hundreds of buildings
collapsed in Malatya,
including a historic mosque
and a major hotel.
50 miles
7.5-magnitude
aftershock
A shopping mall collapsed in Diyarbakir,
nearly 200 miles from the epicenter.
Kahramanmaras
TURKEY
7.8-magnitude
earthquake
Pazarcik
Nurdagi
High-rises in Adana
were reduced to rubble.
Osmaniye
Near the epicenter, Gaziantep
saw widespread destruction,
including a 2,000-year-old castle.
Sanliurfa
A hospital in Iskenderun
was destroyed with patients
and doctors inside.
Jarabulus
Azaz
Afrin
Hatay Airport
Jandaris
TURKEY
Syria’s north was already fragile
from years of civil war. Residents of
Aleppo were told to stand in the cold
after buildings collapsed in aftershocks.
Antakya
Al-Dana
Area of
detail
SYRIA
MEDITERRANEAN
SEA
Even in small towns like Sarmada,
buildings were reduced to rubble.
Atareb
SYRIA
Zardana
Armanaz
Azmarin
Shalakh
Idlib
Hundreds of buildings collapsed
in Malatya, including a historic
mosque and a major hotel.
50 miles
7.5-magnitude
aftershock
A shopping mall collapsed in
Diyarbakir, nearly 200 miles
from the epicenter.
Kahramanmaras
Pazarcik
High-rises in
Adana were
reduced to rubble.
TURKEY
Nurdagi
Osmaniye
Near the epicenter, Gaziantep
saw widespread destruction,
including a 2,000-year-old castle.
Sanliurfa
7.8-magnitude
earthquake
A hospital in Iskenderun
was destroyed with patients
and doctors inside.
Jarabulus
Azaz
Afrin
Hatay Airport
Jandaris
TURKEY
Antakya
Syria’s north was already fragile
from years of civil war. Residents of
Aleppo were told to stand in the cold
after buildings collapsed in aftershocks.
Harim
SYRIA
Al-Dana
Area of
detail
Atareb
MED. SEA
SYRIA
Azmarin
Shalakh
Idlib
50 miles
TURKEY
Area of
detail
N
SYRIA
A shopping mall collapsed in Diyarbakir,
nearly 200 miles from the epicenter.
TURKEY
Hundreds of buildings
collapsed in Malatya,
including a historic mosque
and a major hotel.
Sanliurfa
7.5-magnitude
aftershock
Pazarcik
Jarabulus
Near the epicenter, Gaziantep
saw widespread destruction,
including a 2,000-year-old castle.
Kahramanmaras
7.8-magnitude
earthquake
SYRIA
Nurdagi
Syria’s north was already fragile
from years of civil war. Residents of
Aleppo were told to stand in the cold
after buildings collapsed in aftershocks.
Osmaniye
Jandaris
Al-Dana
A hospital in Iskenderun
was destroyed with patients
and doctors inside.
Atareb
Sarmada
Shalakh
Harim
Hatay
Airport
Armanaz
Azmarin
Antakya
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
50 miles
TURKEY
Area of
detail
N
SYRIA
TURKEY
A shopping mall collapsed in
Diyarbakir, nearly 200 miles
from the epicenter.
Hundreds of buildings
collapsed in Malatya,
including a historic mosque
and a major hotel.
Sanliurfa
7.5-magnitude
aftershock
Near the epicenter, Gaziantep
saw widespread destruction,
including a 2,000-year-old castle.
Pazarcik
Jarabulus
Kahramanmaras
7.8-magnitude
earthquake
SYRIA
Nurdagi
Azaz
Afrin
Osmaniye
Jandaris
A hospital in Iskenderun
was destroyed with patients
and doctors inside.
Azmarin
Syria’s north was already fragile
from years of civil war. Residents of
Aleppo were told to stand in the cold
after buildings collapsed in aftershocks.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
The area was particularly vulnerable to a major earthquake. Older buildings with concrete frames are common, and thousands were destroyed. Infrastructure in northern Syria was already fragile after years of airstrikes and bombardments during the country’s civil war.
Just nine hours later after the initial quake, an unusually strong magnitude 7.5 aftershock hit along the same fault line, about 60 miles north of the first, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
A major quake, and a surprising aftershock
Initial quake, 4:17 a.m.
Large aftershock, 1:24 p.m.
Black Sea
Black Sea
Ankara
Ankara
TURKEY
TURKEY
Epicenter
Epicenter
Gaziantep
Gaziantep
CYPRUS
CYPRUS
SYRIA
SYRIA
Beirut
Beirut
LEBANON
LEBANON
Damascus
Damascus
IRAQ
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
IRAQ
JORDAN
JORDAN
ISRAEL
ISRAEL
200 miles
200 miles
Initial quake, 4:17 a.m.
Large aftershock, 1:24 p.m.
Black Sea
Black Sea
Ankara
Ankara
TURKEY
TURKEY
Epicenter
Epicenter
Gaziantep
Gaziantep
CYPRUS
CYPRUS
SYRIA
Beirut
Beirut
SYRIA
LEBANON
LEBANON
Damascus
Damascus
IRAQ
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
IRAQ
JORDAN
JORDAN
ISRAEL
ISRAEL
200 miles
200 miles
Initial quake, 4:17 a.m.
Black Sea
Ankara
TURKEY
Epicenter
Gaziantep
CYPRUS
Beirut
SYRIA
LEBANON
Damascus
Tel Aviv
IRAQ
JORDAN
ISRAEL
200 miles
Large aftershock, 1:24 p.m.
Black Sea
Ankara
TURKEY
Epicenter
Gaziantep
CYPRUS
SYRIA
Beirut
LEBANON
Damascus
Tel Aviv
IRAQ
JORDAN
ISRAEL
200 miles
While the full extent of the damage remains unknown, collapsed apartments, hotels and other buildings were seen in dozens of cities near the epicenter on both sides of the border.
Here’s what the damage looked like in the region’s biggest cities:
Destruction in Turkey
Ankara
TURKEY
Malatya
Diyarbakir
Kahramanmaras
Antalya
Adiyaman
Adana
Batman
Sanliurfa
Iskenderun
Epicenter of first quake
Istanbul
Ankara
TURKEY
Malatya
Diyarbakir
Kahramanmaras
Antalya
Adana
Adiyaman
Batman
Sanliurfa
Iskenderun
Epicenter of first quake
Istanbul
Ankara
TURKEY
Malatya
Diyarbakir
Adiyaman
Kahramanmaras
Antalya
Batman
Adana
Sanliurfa
Iskenderun
Epicenter of first quake
More than 5,600 buildings were destroyed across Turkey alone after the initial quake, officials in the country said. A senior U.N. official warned that the death toll may increase substantially, which is common after major earthquakes.
The governor of Malatya, a province near the epicenter, said that hundreds of buildings had collapsed. In the provincial capital, home to half a million people, images showed snow falling on the debris, adding to the difficulty of rescue.
Before and after photos show how the quake gutted the historic Yeni Mosque and leveled a major hotel and a large apartment building.
Yeni Mosque
June 2020
Google Maps user image
Feb. 6, 2023
Volkan Kasik/Anadolu Agency, via Getty Images
Hotel Avsar
August 2022
Google Maps Street View
Feb. 6, 2023
@Yedinoktabir via Storyful
Trend Garden Residence
October 2021
Google Maps user image
Feb. 6, 2023
Depo Photos via Reuters
A castle that dates back thousands of years was severely damaged in Gaziantep, near the epicenter of the initial quake.
Gaziantep Castle
November 2022
Google Maps Street View
Feb. 6, 2023
Obtained by Reuters
Gaziantep is also home to around half a million Syrian refugees. Turkey hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees in the world, 3.6 million, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and a majority live in southern cities, including Gaziantep.
Large residential buildings were turned into rubble in Diyarbakir, the biggest Kurdish city in the world and the unofficial capital of Turkey’s eastern Kurdish regions.
Videos from two different angles capture the moment a building collapsed in Sanliurfa, Turkey.
In Adana, a city of more than two million people, multiple high-rise residential buildings were reduced to rubble.
Rescuers searched for survivors in the buildings’ rubble.
Damage in Syria
In Syria, the earthquakes hit the country’s war-ravaged north. More than a thousand were dead and thousands more were injured, according to the Syrian Health Ministry.
Azaz
Afrin
Aleppo
Latakia
Hama
SYRIA
Tartus
Afrin
Azaz
Aleppo
Latakia
Hama
SYRIA
Tartus
Infrastructure across Syria was already in a fragile state after years of airstrikes and bombardments, leaving many buildings unable to withstand the earthquake or dozens of aftershocks. Millions of Syrians have been displaced across the parts of Syria and Turkey where the earthquakes struck.“What we have in Syria is an emergency within an emergency,” said Mark Kaye, a spokesman for the International Rescue Committee.
Widespread damage was documented in the city of Aleppo and throughout Aleppo province. In nearby Jarabulus, which is near the border with Turkey, videos showed a building collapse after the second quake.
Northwest of Aleppo, photos showed residents retrieving a girl from the rubble in the rural town of Jandaris.
The White Helmets, members of a volunteer-based civil defense group that operates in areas of Syria outside government control, have been rescuing trapped civilians in the northwestern corner of the country. They have reported hundreds of deaths in the region.