Karatepe-Aslantaş

Karatepe was a fortress town of the Neo-Hittite kingdom of Que, built in the eighth century BCE by a ruler named Azatiwada, and it matters far beyond its size for one reason: the inscriptions at its two gateways are written twice, once in Phoenician and once in Hittite hieroglyphs, and that bilingual text was the key that let scholars finally read Anatolian hieroglyphic writing. Beyond the inscriptions the gates carry rows of carved orthostats - banquet scenes, ships, hunting, a woman nursing a child under a tree, lions and sphinxes - in a provincial style mixing Hittite, Assyrian and Syrian elements. The excavator chose to leave the reliefs in place rather than remove them to a museum, so they stand in the open-air site where they were found, now under protective roofing, which is unusual and is why the visit feels different from a gallery. The site sits in pine forest above the Ceyhan reservoir, and photography inside is restricted.

What you actually see

• The bilingual inscriptions - Phoenician and Hittite hieroglyphs.
• The gate reliefs - banquet, hunt and mythological orthostats.
• The citadel walls - the hilltop enclosure in the pines.
• The reservoir view - the Ceyhan lake below the hill.

When to go

April to June and September to November. Mornings; the forest gives some shade but the region is very hot in summer.

Honest expectations

Photography is restricted or prohibited around the reliefs. Visits are partly guided and follow a set route. It is remote - a car is essential and the nearest towns are small.

Nearby

Anavarza is west on the Cilician plain; Osmaniye and the Amanos foothills are south.