Yesemek Sculpture Workshop

Overview

On a hillside in the far south of Gaziantep Province, hundreds of stone figures lie in the dry grass. Some of them are only rough blocks with the hint of a face. Others are lions and sphinxes that are almost finished. Yet no one ever came to collect them. This is Yesemek, the largest known sculpture workshop of the ancient Near East, and walking through it feels like stepping into a stonemason’s yard that closed more than 2,700 years ago.

The Story of Yesemek

The workshop’s sculptures date to about 900–800 BC, the age of the Late Hittite kingdoms. Here, on a slope covered with dark basalt, masons roughed out gate lions and sphinxes for the cities of the region. From Gaziantep, join our Yesemek tour.

Busy years and a sudden end

The workshop was at its busiest in the 9th century BC. Then, in the late 8th century BC, the Assyrians took control of the region, and the workshop fell silent.

What to See at Yesemek

Overall, the workshop spreads across a wide hillside, and excavators have uncovered hundreds of pieces. Felix von Luschan, who was digging at nearby Zincirli, first found the site in the 1890s. After him, Bahadır Alkım led excavations from the late 1950s to 1961, and İlhan Temizsoy dug here again around 1990.

Sphinxes and lions at Yesemek

In general, most of the pieces are gate lions, some of them with wings, and sphinxes with a lion’s body and a human head. Like the gate guardians of Hattusa and Alacahöyük, they were meant to guard doorways.

Mountain gods and war scenes

Next, look for the reliefs of mountain gods. Find the war scenes, including a battle chariot.

Every stage of the work

Best of all, Yesemek shows how the masons worked. You can follow every stage, from blocks split from the rock to roughed-out figures. Usually, though, they left the final touches for the building site, so almost every statue here is still unfinished.

The Village and the Valley

Today, Yesemek is a small village in the İslahiye district, right beside the workshop.

Tips for visiting Yesemek

Where Did the Finished Statues Go?

The workshop sits on the west-facing slopes of Karatepe, also called Aslanlıtepe, the Lion Hill, south of the village. So the name already tells you what the masons made here. Then, to see where such figures ended up, go to the Gaziantep Archaeology Museum. Its halls show Late Hittite finds from Zincirli, Tilmen and Dülük, and its garden holds a row of basalt stelae. Also, since 2012 the Yesemek quarry and sculpture workshop has been on Türkiye’s UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List, together with Zeugma.

Finally, save time for lunch in Gaziantep, because the city is a capital of pistachios. Antep fıstığı, the local pistachio, became a registered designation of origin in 2000, and Antep baklavası is a registered local product too. For breakfast, try Antep katmeri, a thin layered pastry registered in 2017. Walk through the coppersmiths’ lanes of the old town, because Gaziantep copper handwork has been a registered product since 2012.

How to Visit Yesemek

The open-air museum lies south of Yesemek village, just over 20 kilometers (13 miles) southeast of İslahiye. The Gaziantep Museum Directorate runs it. We arrange your visit to Yesemek on a day from Gaziantep.

Then pair it with Gaziantep and the Zeugma Mosaic Museum. To see finished Hittite sphinxes, visit the Hittite capital of Hattusa and the sphinx gate of Alacahöyük.