ALEXANDRETTA, a city of Syria, on the gulf of the same name. Pop. 15,000, two-thirds Muslim. Iskanderun (its Turkish name) preserves the name but probably not the exact site of the city founded to commemorate Alexander's victory over the Persians at Issus (333 B.c.) . The name "little Alexandria" ap pears to date from the 4th century A.D. The city is surrounded by a girdle of hills, spurs of the Cilician Taurus. Its site on marshy, deltaic ground has made it notoriously unhealthy, as an early epi thet scabiosa indicates, and the yellow hue of the natives of to-day reflects the constant prevalence of fever. The British Levant (Turkey) Company maintained an agency and factory here for 200 years till 1825 in spite of appalling mortality among its em ployees. Alexandretta lies in the etat Syria of French mandated territory has attached to it a sanjaq, with regard to which the League Council settled a Franco-Turkish dispute on Jan. 27, 1937. The sanjaq became a separate entity controlling its own internal affairs, with Syria responsible for its foreign policy ; the official languages were to be Turkish, and another language (presum ably Arabic) selected by the League Council. The Anatolian fron tier reaches the sea I 2m. to the north. A branch line (1913) connects Alexandretta to the north at Topra Kale with the Baghdad railway. Alexandretta was the main outlet for the old overland trade from Persia and India until the construction of the Suez Canal. It remains the main port for the district of Aleppo. It pro vides the only safe anchorage on the Syrian coast. Imports are mainly cotton, silk and woollen goods as well as yarns, dyes and buffalo hides for the soles of native shoes. Exports include live stock (cattle and sheep to Egypt), textiles, tobacco, silk cocoons, pistachio nuts, oranges, lemons, liquorice and gall-nuts. Britain has here a vice-consul. Petroleum has been discovered south west of Alexandretta, and antimony and chrome are reported to exist in the surrounding hills.
See Admiralty Handbook of Syria (1913) ; Diplomatic and Con sular Reports on Turkey; Reports on Syria of Department of Over seas Trade.