Aslantaş and Yılantaş Rock Tombs

The Aslantaş and Yılantaş rock tombs in the Göynüş Valley of the İhsaniye district, Afyonkarahisar, are among the most monumental funerary structures of the Phrygian civilization in Anatolia. Both tombs were carved from solid volcanic rock outcrops in the later Phrygian period, probably between the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, representing the pinnacle of Phrygian mortuary architecture. Aslantaş (Lion Stone) takes its name from a pair of lions carved in profile flanking the central facade, which rises to approximately 11 metres in height. The composition is organized as a monumental false-door — a funerary form characteristic of Phrygian tombs in which the doorway to the burial chamber is symbolically represented but not functionally open — framed by half-columns and friezes of geometric ornament derived from the Phrygian tradition of imitating timber architectural forms in rock. Yılantaş (Serpent Stone) was once the larger of the two monuments but suffered catastrophic structural collapse, apparently caused by a major earthquake in antiquity, leaving the carved facade split and toppled. Fragments of carved relief survive among the debris, including serpent motifs that give the tomb its name, and scholars have used these to reconstruct the original composition. Both monuments are concentrated in a valley landscape preserving several additional Phrygian rock carvings and remains, making the Göynüş Valley an important open-air archaeological zone within the wider Phrygian Highlands area. The Phrygian Highlands are on Turkey's UNESCO Tentative Heritage List and the Afyonkarahisar province is the core of the surviving monumental Phrygian landscape.