ANTAKYA, Turkey — They bedded down wherever they may: on lightless road corners, in grassy little parks, subsequent to an elementary college, on a hillside down from one of many world’s earliest Christian church buildings.

Throughout Antakya, the traditional capital of Hatay Province, the area hit hardest by the worst earthquake in Turkey in almost a century, 1000’s had been struggling to make sense of a cataclysm that had turned their lives inside out and left many with no house, no possessions, no recollections and, for some, no future right here.

Many had been grappling with getting via one other night time. Vehicles had been chilly to sleep in and too small to carry most households. However they may very well be hotter than tents, which had been only a skinny layer masking the full devastation of the folks inside.

Both was nonetheless preferable to a tarp, stretched over a bus shelter or held up by poles. Regardless of how a lot wooden and trash the Antakyans burned to maintain their households heat, it was nonetheless freezing chilly.

“No electrical energy, no water, no rest room,” mentioned Saba Yigit, 52, a nanny, giving particular emphasis to the final merchandise.

Thursday was the third day in a row she had woken up, freezing, within the lined vegetable market the place she and her household had taken shelter after Monday’s early morning quake broken their house close to the Mediterranean. “It’s horrible.”

Among the market’s blue steel stands had been claimed as makeshift beds. Others had been nonetheless heaped with parsley, cabbage, scallions and cauliflower, now wilting. The ashes of Ms. Yigit’s little hearth cradled a few charred peppers and a carrot, the one cooking her household was in a position to do on this metropolis of edible marvels, the place Mediterranean, Arab and Anatolian cuisines had blended for hundreds of years.

She mentioned the greens had come from assist teams — for most individuals, the one meals obtainable in Antakya — not from the bounty round her. Sometime, she mentioned, with extra wishful considering than realism, its house owners would possibly nonetheless wish to promote the produce.

On Thursday, because the United Nations’ first assist convoy rolled into opposition-controlled Syria, the loss of life toll in Turkey exceeded the 17,600 mark, making it the deadliest temblor there in additional than 80 years. With the three,377 fatalities up to now in Syria, the variety of useless had surpassed 21,000.

Thursday would even be the fourth night time most individuals within the crumpled husk that had been Antakya spent sleeping exterior. Many had misplaced their houses within the earthquake, whereas others feared the slightest aftershock may ship the remaining homes and residences heaving down, too. They had been too scared to go inside to make use of the few bathrooms that had been working.

“Whereas we look forward to tents, we’ll die right here in our chairs,” mentioned Sabriye Karaoglan, 70, who sat in a blue camp chair on a mountainside promenade overlooking the town, wrapped in a too-thin blanket.

Subsequent to her was a cage of parakeets rescued from her household’s house. On the street in entrance was the automobile members of the family had been taking turns sleeping in at night time. As soon as upon a time, they used to drive it to the seaside when it was good out, she mentioned, taking the identical blue chairs alongside for picnics.

Based in 300 B.C. by a former normal for Alexander the Nice, Antakya has been round lengthy sufficient to have been destroyed and rebuilt a number of occasions. The Greeks, Romans and Byzantines known as it Antioch, and it was a buying and selling middle so highly effective that it was as soon as the Roman Empire’s third-largest metropolis.

The trendy metropolis was constructed atop layers and layers of the ruins of long-gone civilizations. Historical past nonetheless pokes via in lots of locations: an early Christian church based in a cave by Sts. Peter and Paul; historical stone mosques within the oldest a part of city; a stretch of high-quality Byzantine mosaics uncovered within the development of a resort.

However the lengthy view held no consolation for individuals who received calls each few hours telling them that one other cherished one had died, an outline that utilized to most individuals in Antakya this week. And by Thursday, after they walked the streets, they now not heard the calls of individuals trapped underneath the rubble.

“No extra Antakya,” mentioned Kazim Kuseyri, 41, the proprietor of Antakya’s most venerable resort, the Savon, who was sleeping in a automobile within the resort’s courtyard together with about 25 family members, workers members and their family members and associates.

“I misplaced my associates; I misplaced the buildings the place I ate and drank with my associates. I misplaced all my recollections. I don’t have any motive to reside in Hatay anymore. As a result of there’s nothing.”

Nobody was exempted from the catastrophe, besides maybe the canine nonetheless happening with their lives. In some neighborhoods, each constructing was cracked or in ruins. Even the bushes bore the scars: Individuals had been reducing their branches to burn.

The oldest a part of the town, the place historical mosques, church buildings, Alawite chapels and a synagogue all stood inside a number of blocks of each other, was virtually fully destroyed. Its existence had been a testomony, residents mentioned, to Antakya’s many coexisting religions, although for many years prior to now century sectarian violence usually plagued the town and most Jews had lengthy since left.

A metropolis of greater than 200,000, Antakya has additionally had its tolerance examined over the previous decade with the arrival of 1000’s of Syrian refugees.

Alongside Independence Street, the world’s first lighted road, buyers, strollers and vacationers had bustled out and in of a kebab restaurant, a spice retailer, a sweets store, a tailor, a pharmacy, a hair dresser and extra, all now cracked or destroyed.

“It hurts to see Independence Street like this,” mentioned Ahmet Gunes, 34, a Turkish Kurd who usually got here to Antakya from his city, Sanliurfa, to promote livestock. “It’s an ideal place. I want this had occurred to my hometown as an alternative.”

Throughout the road from the elegant Ottoman-era Liwan Resort, three physique baggage lay on the sidewalk. The labels mentioned one held a 19-year-old Syrian, one other a 10-year-old Turk.

A Syrian man in socks and sandals stumbled up, clutching a listing of six names written on a torn piece of cardboard. They had been family members of his, amongst them his dad and mom.

That they had all died, he mentioned. He staggered off, protecting his face.

Together with a pal, Isa Solmaz, 51, who grew up within the neighborhood earlier than transferring to Istanbul for work, was guarding an artist’s store from looters. His brother had saved their mom from the rubble of her house, however all the pieces else that they had often known as youngsters — all the pieces else their dad and mom, and their dad and mom’ dad and mom earlier than them, had been happy with — was gone.

The scent of a savory flatbread popping out of the oven within the bakery down the road used to ship them operating downstairs to purchase a serving to. An older neighbor who has since died used to take them in after they ran away from their mom’s scoldings.

“You sleep, you get up and you then don’t keep in mind your childhood anymore,” Mr. Solmaz mentioned, predicting that almost all Antakyans would depart the town. “It’s a lack of reminiscence. It’s not a metropolis that’s gone right here. It’s a complete historical past; it’s a civilization.”

All night time, the sounds of calamity broke the sleep of the displaced. Sirens wailed nonstop. Each jiffy, helicopters carrying assist chopped the air overhead.

With retailers, kitchens and eating places closed or destroyed, the one meals got here within the type of humanitarian assist, usually lentils with plain pasta, canned tuna or biscuits from a package deal.

One other drawback was holding in contact with family members and associates with out a lot electrical energy or cellular service. Energy shops had disappeared together with houses and workplaces, and dozens of individuals huddled across the few cellular electrical energy vans, plugging their cellphones into the facility strips that snaked out in each course.

Counting on vehicles for energy was tough, as gas is scarce in Hatay Province and the quantity of gasoline individuals are allowed to purchase is restricted.

Most of all, everybody was chilly.

Although assist teams had distributed some blankets and heat clothes, folks sleeping within the open needed to burn something they may discover to heat up. Cell vans and volunteers supplied sizzling tea and lentil soup in some locations, and the solar introduced some reduction to freezing fingers. However when night time fell, the wrestle for heat started once more.

A couple of days in the past, Antakyans wouldn’t have believed they may reside like this, or that they might ever name one other place house. A couple of days in, they discovered themselves planning to go away.

“Hatay is over,” mentioned Ibrahim Kaya, 55, who was additionally sheltering within the vegetable market with family members.

All that they had managed to save lots of from their house was a bag of borek, a sort of cheese pastry. When a customer arrived, nevertheless, dwelling on charity didn’t stop them from providing hospitality. They poured tea and supplied the pastry; they smiled, briefly, via tears.