This is an area that has been inhabited since way back in prehistory, and there are a couple of important archeological sites -- the prehistoric palace found inside the Tilmen Höyük (Tumulus) and the ancient Hittite quarry that forms the Yesemek Open-air Museum -- waiting to be explored by anyone with either their own transport or a bit of time on their hands and a readiness to wander off the beaten track.
Both Yesemek and Tilmen Höyük (Tumulus) can be visited using the southeastern towns of Gaziantep or Kilis as a base. From Kilis local minibuses run to Islahiye, the small town that is closest to Yesemek. Despite the fact that the road is currently being upgraded, it's a lovely drive through gentle countryside, and at this time of year you can expect to see whole extended families of itinerant agricultural workers busily picking peppers on either side of the road. These are then spread out to dry in the sun, so that what look like a succession of red carpets roll out into the fields, adding bright splashes of vivid color to the standard yellowy-brown of late autumn.
The minibus drops you at Islahiye's tiny bus terminal whence there are occasional onward connections to Yesemek. These, however, are timed to suit Yesemek shoppers who come into town to fill up on groceries; before boarding one you'd do well to check whether there will be a return bus the same day. Failing that, taxi drivers wait nearby and they know the road to Yesemek well.
Ten kilometers east of Islahiye you'll see a sign pointing to Tilmen Höyük, which sits in the Islahiye Vadisi (valley), part of a fault line delineated by the Amanus and Kurt mountain ranges and extending south through the Middle East all the way to the Red Sea and East Africa. Even if you're not normally very interested in prehistoric ruins you might want to divert to visit this one since not only has it been admirably excavated and labeled but it also sits in an exquisite location overlooking the Karasu River in an area that has been listed as a protected wetland under the Ramsar Convention. As a result you can expect to pass your visit in the company of all sorts of birds, including grey wagtails and beautiful pied kingfishers who divebomb the artificial lake near the car park. Olive trees also grow wild in this beautiful and peaceful place.
The site at Tilmen dates back to Late Chalcolithic times (c. 2500-c. 1700 BC), and it's at least as interesting to explore as the much better known site at Troy, not least because the bases of the structures here were made using huge slabs of basalt that have stood up to the passing of the millennia well. The site was originally excavated between 1959 and 1972. But new work was carried out between 2003 and 2005, and the result has been state-of-the-art labeling, which makes it possible to recognize that there was once a fortified city here that endured into the Late Bronze Age (c. 1500–c. 1200 B.C.). The remains of an impressive palace complete with throne room indicate just how important the site would have been in its heyday around 1800-1600 B.C. It has been compared to the site at Ebla in northern Syria in which case mud-brick walls would probably have risen above the basalt foundations with colorful paintings on their inner faces.
Beyond Tilmen the landscape becomes ever more bucolically rustic. This is a part of the world where the traffic jams are caused by huge flocks of sheep or cows in the road, and where you'll find yourself rounding the base of a hummock that looks much as Tilmen must have done before it was excavated near a village called Şahmaran after the strange mythological Queen of the Snakes, who has a particular resonance in the part of Turkey, stretching between Tarsus in the west and Mardin in the east.
Yesemek itself is a pinprick of a village of no great antiquity or beauty. However, on its outskirts lies one of Turkey's most striking survivals from Hittite times -- a vast quarry where you can still see the remains of numerous half-finished statues. The sheer size of the quarry is in some ways a better indicator of the strength of the Hittites at the height of their powers than the better known site at Hattuşa near Çorum since to need this many statues, churned out on an almost industrial scale, they must have had an extraordinary number of monumental buildings to decorate -- many more than the currently excavated sites would suggest.
The site was originally discovered in the 1890s by Felix von Luschan, and excavations in the middle of the last century uncovered some 200 half-finished orthostats or stone statues, making this the largest sculpture workshop ever found in the Middle East. Since then another hundred or so statues have been uncovered, and some of them have been re-erected in an open-air museum on the lower slopes of the hill. Research suggests that the quarry was active during two separate periods: during the Great Hittite era from the 15th to 12th centuries B.C., and then again in the Late Hittite era between the 9th and 8th centuries when it seems to have been used to supply the kingdom of Sam'al, the impressive finds from which can be seen in the İstanbul Archeology Museum.
The statues, probably intended to be used as gateposts and weighing up to 15 tons each, can be divided into three main categories depicting lions, sphinxes and bearded mountain gods who come in pairs with their arms crossed on their chests and long skirts concealing their feet. The site custodian also points out a wonderful carving of a bear-man who could just possibly be a priest and the two out of three surviving blocks that would together have made up a carving of an elaborately decorated war chariot with the figure of a man lying face down on the ground beneath its wheels.
Yesemek is important because it has enabled archeologists to work out how the Hittites created their sculptures even though no actual tools have been found at the site. It's believed that the statues were delivered to their final destinations still incomplete so that the details could be finished off locally.
Recently the site has been landscaped and a stream now cascades down the hillside, injecting the pleasing sound of running water into the backdrop. It's especially lovely in autumn when the trees are changing color, although to see these ghostly reminders of the very remote past beneath the snow is also a rare treat. To keep alive the tradition of Yesemek as a center for sculpture a piece of land overlooking the quarry has been leveled and students have been given the chance to display their works on it. Don't leave without taking a look at them.
WHERE TO STAY:
Anadolu Evleri, Gaziantep. Tel: 0342-220 9525
Dayı Ahmet Ağa Konağı,
Gaziantep. Tel: 0342-232 1626
Mer-Tur Hotel, Kilis.
Tel: 0348-814 0834
HOW TO GET THERE:
There are minibuses from Gaziantep and Kilis to Islahiye. From there you can catch a dolmuş to Yesemek where taxis are available if there's no service back again. Taxi drivers in Islahiye will take you to the Tilmen Höyük on the way to Yesemek. If there's no direct bus back to Kilis from Islahiye, take one to the junction at Akbez and wait for a connection.half to get to Kozan from Yüregir.
Locals picking pepper in Yesemek
Yesemek's Hittite quarry
Ruins in Tilmen
The sculpture park in Yesemek
A general view of Tilmen
