Iskenderun [key], city, S Turkey, on the Gulf of Alexandretta, an inlet of the Mediterranean Sea. The principal Turkish port on the Mediterranean, it has a large steel plant and is the terminus for an oil pipeline. The city was founded by Alexander the Great to commemorate his victory over the Persians at Issus in 333 b.c. In a.d. 1515 the Ottoman Empire under Selim I, its ruler, captured the city. Iskenderun was transferred (1920) to the French Syria League of Nations mandate as part of the sanjak of Alexandretta, but was returned to Turkey in 1939 (see Hatay).
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