On the Trail of the Hittites

Last Sunday was a classically beautiful fall day. There was no way to stay inside, despite the pile of work on my desk. A number of us had been wanting to see the Hittite Open Air Museum just outside the small village of Yesemek, about an hour from Gaziantep. There is no way to get there by public transportation so six us us got together and hired a cab to drive us. We left Gaziantep on the same route we took to Antakya, dropping down into that fabulous agricultural valley. At Nurdagi we turned south toward Antakya, hugging the western side of the valley.


We drove a good 20 minutes to the small town of Islahiye, where we turned east again. The village of Yesemek at the base of the mountains on the eastern side of this big valley, about 27 km from Islahiye. The goal of the journey was an ancient Hittite quarry and sculpture workshop dating back to the second millennium BC -- it's been there for over 3,000 years, in fact, probably closer to 4,000 years! Archeologists estimate that the quarry and workshop were abandoned sometime in the 8th century BC . The Hittites were a late Bronze Age-early Iron Age people who established a kingdom sometime in the 18th century B.C. Their capital was in Hattusa, near present-day Ankara, but eventually expanded as far as the Aegean in the west, east of Gaziantep and south into Syria and what is today Lebanon. They also kept records in a cuneiform script. With the Hittites came the beginning of the written history of Turkey. At the workshop, basalt was quarried and shaped into rough cuts of sculptures that were then finished at the final destination.





Remains of these sculpture sare scattered over the whole hillside, but there is a formal terraced area with a stream running through it. It's nicely treed, with benches and even a picnic table or two. It is such a peaceful place to sit and contemplate the history or the beauty around you. There were basically three type of sculptures manufactured in the Yesemek workshop: sphinxes, lions and mountain gods.


Above is a rough cut of a sphinx. There is a finished example of such a statue in the Gaziantep archeological museum.


Here are a couple of lions. They were usually put on either side of gates to palaces or other monuments. We saw a wonderful lions gate in the museum at Antakya.


The third kind of sculpture made in the workshop were the mountain gods. There are always two figures of the gods, but the number of orbs or solar discs around their heads differs. Frankly, I don't see any discs in this one but -- aside from the intruding foot -- this is the best shot I got of the mountain gods.



The Hittites were known for their chariots. This is the only sculpture of its kind found in the workshop. You can see the wheel of the chariot on the left block. It is presumed that there was one on top of it, but it has never been found. On the right you see a horse running over a man. You can also see a stag on the right and an eagle in the upper right. I really like this one.


This is the view down into the valley. I was shooting almost into the sun so the picture is a bit washed out. But click on the image and get it to full screen size. I could have sat there all day. There is actually a big lake between the village and the mountains in the back.


On the hill across from the Hittite sculpture park is a small area devoted to exhibiting modern stone scuptures. I thought they were fun so have included a couple of photos. You can see the hillside with the Hittite sculptures in the background

Another modern sculpture.

As we were leaving the museum, the caretaker invited us back to his home/farmstead for tea. It was wonderful. They had chickens and chicks running around, fig trees, and a grape arbor. If you enlarge the picture you will see that the traditional Turkish teapot has to parts. You make a strong tea in the upper part. You fill each glass about 1/3 full of the tea and then add water. Tea is always drunk from glasses.


As we were leaving the village we met the village herd being driven back into town. Some were all black like the picture above. Others were black and white.




When they came to an intersection, some cows automatically turned right and others left. They ambled up the road and turned, in groups of twos and threes, into open gates. They knew exactly where they were going.

The sun was setting as we left for home. What a great day!