Turkey sits on top of major seismic fault lines, frequently shaken by earthquakes The quake, which was centered on Turkey's southeastern province of Kahramanmaras, was felt as far away as Cairo. It sent residents of Damascus rushing into the street, and jolted awake people in their beds in Beirut. The region sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. Some 18,000 were killed in a similarly powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkey in 1999. FRANCE 24's journalist from our Science Desk, Shirli Sitbon, and international affairs commentator, Douglas Herbert, tells us more.