Karatepe-Aslantaş Open-Air Museum

Karatepe-Aslantaş Open-Air Museum preserves one of the most important late-Hittite archaeological sites in the world, set within a pine-forested national park on the Ceyhan River approximately 110 kilometres northeast of Adana in Osmaniye province. The site was the fortress-city of Azatiwadaya, founded in the 8th century BC by a local ruler named Azatiwatas who served the Neo-Hittite state of Adanawa, which took its name from the same Çukurova region where Adana now stands. Its international fame rests on two ceremonial gateways — a southern gate and a northern gate — whose monumental orthostats (upright stone slabs) bear relief carvings of exceptional quality and variety: royal feasting scenes, musicians, hunters, sphinxes, lions guarding doorways, divine figures and mythological hybrid animals. Each gateway also preserves copies of a royal inscription written in both Phoenician alphabet and hieroglyphic Luwian script, forming the Karatepe Bilingual — one of the key texts used in the decipherment of the Luwian hieroglyphic writing system. In a curatorial approach pioneered at Karatepe and internationally admired, the reliefs have been left in their original positions beneath modern protective shelters rather than removed to a museum, allowing visitors to examine 2,800-year-old carvings at close range in their gateway context. The walking route between the two gates follows a shaded forest path with views down to the turquoise Aslantaş Reservoir on the Ceyhan River below. A visit of 1.5 to 2 hours covers both gates thoroughly. A museum ticket or Müzekart is required at the park entrance kiosk. The site is closed on Mondays.