The Karatepe complex (“Black Hill”) are the remains of a Hittite city, discovered in 1946 by Theodor Bossert, from the late 8th century BC. Two city gates have been excavated. The many reliefs that cover the lower walls of these gate complexes carry motives with a mixed Late-Hittite, Aramaic, Assyrian and Phoenician background. Even Egyptian influence is visible, in two representations of the god Bes. The most famous is the banqueting scene showing a Hittite ruler at diner, surrounded by musicians and dancers carrying fans. A bilingual inscription in Phoenician and Hittite hieroglyphs helped decipher the latter. The Hittite cuneiform script had been deciphered before.

Having read the Lonely Planet I feared the worst: supposedly I had to wait until a large enough group had gathered to make the tour, lunch time closure was strictly observed and no pictures, please. Rules seemed to have relaxed and as always it helped to travel off season. So if you ran into the strict regime, here are the pictures you longed to take. A rough indication where I took them (no gps yet) is in the map view. For more things Hittite check at Bogazkale, Yazilikaya, Alacahöyük, Anatolian Civilizations Museum

For an excellent collection of Hittite pictures from several sources - with clickable map - see Monuments of the Hittites by Tayfun Bilgin who kindly informed me on proper captions for some of my pictures also.

Please note that the pictures often have been edited for contrast: many of the stones are of a greyish-white Stone with little contrast, in order to improve the visibility of the inscriptions it was necessary to raise contrast beyond what is natural. Some pictures have been corrected for perspective, I indicate this by adding persp in the name.