Alacahöyük | Çorum, 2011

One of Anatolia’s most important archaeological settlements, Alacahöyük lies near the town of Alaca in Çorum province. Its history spans thousands of years and bears the traces of successive civilizations. Occupied from the Chalcolithic period through the Hattian, Hittite and later eras, the mound is particularly renowned for its richly furnished Early Bronze Age royal tombs and the monumental Sphinx Gate of the Hittite period. Its archaeological remains reveal the long transformation of Anatolia from prehistoric communities to powerful states.

One of Alacahöyük’s most remarkable chapters belongs to the Hattian culture, which flourished in central Anatolia during the third millennium BCE, before the rise of the Hittites. The Hattians are known for their sophisticated metalwork, religious traditions and exceptional burial offerings. Thirteen richly furnished tombs discovered at Alacahöyük are among the most significant archaeological testimonies to this culture. Dating to the second half of the third millennium BCE, they yielded ornaments, vessels, weapons and ceremonial objects made of gold, silver and bronze.

Among the most distinctive finds are the bronze objects commonly known as sun discs, which have become symbols of Alacahöyük. Some incorporate bulls or stags, while others feature intricate geometric designs. Their precise functions remain debated, although they are generally associated with the ceremonial and religious life of Hattian society. Many of the objects recovered from Alacahöyük are now displayed at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara.

In the second millennium BCE, as the Hittites established a powerful state in Anatolia, Alacahöyük acquired renewed importance. The settlement is thought to have served as a religious center during the Hittite period. Some scholars have proposed identifying it with Arinna, the sacred city mentioned in Hittite texts, but this identification has not been conclusively established. Traditions associated with the Hittite Sun Goddess are particularly relevant to understanding the region’s religious history.

The Sphinx Gate is among Alacahöyük’s most impressive surviving monuments. Dating to the Hittite imperial period, the entrance is flanked by sphinxes with human faces and lion bodies. Built from massive stone blocks, the gate was more than a defensive structure: it also expressed religious and political authority. The faces, headdresses and sculpted bodies of the sphinxes illustrate distinctive qualities of Hittite monumental art.

The stone reliefs surrounding the gate are equally important. They depict ceremonial processions, offerings to deities, animals, musicians and scenes of performance. Some show rituals involving a bull, while others portray people carrying instruments or taking part in processions. These images reveal how the Hittites recorded aspects of their ceremonies and communal life in stone, alongside representations of gods and rulers.

When I photographed Alacahöyük in 2011, I recorded the Sphinx Gate from different viewpoints and concentrated on the details of its reliefs. The figures’ faces, clothing, gestures, objects and animal forms conveyed the narrative power of Hittite art. The weathered surfaces also bore the marks of centuries of exposure to the elements.

Another feature that drew my attention was the construction technique using large stone blocks. In some walls, the stones were not simply stacked in straight courses but shaped to fit their neighbors. The varying sizes and carefully worked joints reveal the builders’ skill in understanding the material and positioning substantial masses of stone. These surviving walls allow us to study not only the appearance of monumental architecture but also aspects of its construction.

Excavations across the mound have revealed building foundations, courtyards, stone pavements and architectural fragments from different periods. Much of what survives today is at foundation level, requiring visitors to imagine the scale and function of the structures that once stood here. The open landscape of central Anatolia brings these traces of the distant past into contact with the rural surroundings of the present.

Water management was another notable achievement of the Hittite period. A reservoir and dam system discovered near Alacahöyük, generally dated to the thirteenth century BCE and associated with the reign of King Tudhaliya IV, demonstrates the engineering knowledge involved in storing and managing water. Its survival is a reminder that Hittite builders created not only monumental gates and temples but also durable infrastructure to meet essential needs.

The history of archaeological research at Alacahöyük occupies a special place in Turkish archaeology. Following preliminary investigations in the early twentieth century, systematic excavations began in 1935 with the support of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Led initially by Turkish archaeologists including Remzi Oğuz Arık and Hamit Zübeyr Koşay, these excavations became one of the landmark archaeological initiatives of the early Republic and greatly expanded knowledge of Anatolia’s pre-Hittite civilizations.

My photographs from 2011 bring together different layers of this long history: the monumental sphinxes, stone reliefs portraying ceremonies, walls assembled from massive blocks, the foundations of ancient buildings and the remains of Hittite water engineering. Each reveals another aspect of the cultural heritage left by successive societies in the same landscape.

What impressed me most at Alacahöyük was the way stone served both as a building material and as a medium of expression. On one side stood enormous blocks carefully fitted together; on the other were reliefs portraying people, animals and sacred ceremonies. These stones are more than the ruins of an ancient settlement. They are enduring witnesses to the knowledge, beliefs and craftsmanship of people who lived in Anatolia thousands of years ago.