Yesemek

Situated around 110 kilometres from Gaziantep and near the western the border with Syria near Aleppo, Yesemek is both a national park and belonging to the UNESCO world heritage site tentative list in Turkey since 2012. The precise location of the Yesemek stone workshop is west of Yesemek Village, around 23 kilometres southeast of the Islahiye district, on the west-side hills of Karatepe (meaning Black belly hill in Turkish) called Aslantepe (Lions Hill).

Yesemek was considered to be a World Heritage site for many reasons, including having been used as a Workshop and Quarry for its high-quality Basalt. Large blocks of stone were mined there, with sizes of the stones reaching up to 15 tons. Over 300 stone sculptures that were excavated there were invaluable to historians and archaeologists developing the theory of the method of the Hittite empire for the construction of sculptures and it’s transportation over vast distances. It was once the major production site for the entire Anatolian plateau and the largest workshop in Asia minor. If you are in the wider Hatay area, visit our dedicated page for more information on what you could do in the region.

Visit the Open Air Museum
Since 2005 Yesemek has been an open-air museumWorthy of a full day trip, this incredible site that is frozen in time from the 8th century BC. Due in part to the difficulty in moving multi-ton stones from the workshop area, the site is largely untouched by natural erosion and largely resembles in perfect actuality the way it was in the past. There you will be able to see large examples of monuments on display, portraying large figures of animals such as lions and buffalo and bearded mountain gods.

Admission is free of charge, and you will be able to buy informative maps and brochures from the pavilion at the entrance. The site is reminiscent of an industrial scale operation, and for centuries functioned as a major producer of sculptures and monumental stone carvings to be exported to all corners of the Hittite empire. You can also find the nearby neolithic archaeological site of Tilmen Hoyuk. It is slightly out of the way, on the way from Islahiye to Yesemek.