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HISTORICAL PLACES / 144 HISTORICAL PLACES / 145
The Ruins of Carchemish
The Ancient
City
of Carchemish
is
located
near Karkamis
District of
Gaziantep,
on
the west
bank of Euphrates, on the border
line of Turkey and Syria. This city
is also considered as one of the
most important settlements of
Middle East Archeology.
In 2000 BC, the city was located
right at the intersection of the roads
going from Anatolia to Mesopotamia
and Egypt.
The documents about the Kings of
Carchemish go back to 1700 BC.
With its black basalt and limestone
hieroglyphic embossed inscriptions,
Carchemish was considered
as one of the most important
sculpting schools of the Neo-Hittite
period. These inscriptions reflected
both Hittite culture and
Assyrian culture. They were placed
on the city doors, as first stones
above the foundations of the
sacred structures. The inscriptions
set light to the life style, outfits,
and culture of people in 1000 BC
with the figures of Goddess Kupapa
and his soldiers from the ceremonies,
priests, figures of people
carrying animals, figures of princes
armed with long and flat
swords, and portrayals of celebrations
with defensive animals.
Most of the embossments of Carchemish
are being displayed in the
Museum of Anatolian Civilizations
in Ankara, Turkey.
Ancient City of Carchemish is
currently located in a mine, a notrespassing
zone on the Syrian
border. Therefore, no excavations
can be done at the present time.
It is expected this area will be
cleaned from the mines and opened
to the archeological excavations
in the near future.
The Ancient City of Doliche
A city at the crossroads of different
cultures…
The ancient City of the Doliche
are located 10 kilometers north of
the Gaziantep province of Turkey.
It is a city which had seen five
different belief systems consecutively.
These five religions are Hittites’
God Teshub (the Hurrian
god of sky and storm), the Roman
“King of Gods” Ipiter Dolichenus,
Graeco-Roman Mithras one of the
most important religions of Roman
Empire, Christianity and Islam.
During the antique times, the city
was located at such a crossroads
of trade ways from south, northeast,
and west. For the period of
Assyrians, it was at crossroads of
the way from Mesopotamia to Cilicia.
For the duration of Hellenistic
and Roman civilizations, it
was located at the crossroads of
the Silk Way going from Antioch
and Cilicia to Zeugma. The Doliche
was divided into two sections;
the first one was called antique
city, and the second one was called
sacred city. Following the Ottoman
Sovereignty, the Turkish
tribes moved into the region and
built a village at the cliffs near
Doliche, and they named the village
after Doliche (Dülük). During
the first years of Turkish Republic,
the village was used as a layover
place for caravans between
Ayntap and Maras.
Today the section called antique
city is located underground below
Keber Hill. The sacred city is located
at 3 kilometers north of Dülük
Village, covered with cedar
and pine trees, on a hill called
“Doliche Baba”, which has an altitude
of 1020.
During the excavation in Keber
Hill, researches uncovered some
Early Paleolithic flint tools and
the workshops where the tools were
made. These stone stools had
very distinctive characteristic features;
therefore, they were called
“Dolichean”. Because of these
findings from the excavations, it
is assumed that the city’s history
goes back to 600,000 BC. Therefore,
Doliche is named as one of
the oldest urban settlements in
the world.
The temenos of Iupiter Dolichenus,
which is located on the hill of
“Doliche Baba”, has similar characteristic
features like other pagan
temples. It is surrounded by
the sacred area. Approximately
500 meters west of this area, there
are about 20 mausoleums
which were built on a cliff side.
Some of these mausoleums had
one room and some of them had
multiple rooms. They were built
between II century BC and IV
century BC for the monks from
the temple by Romans.
Also there is a necropolis located
right across from the Keber Hill.
At the necropolis, there are a
number of cave like sepulchers.
Some of the main rooms of these
sepulchers can be reached by stone
steps (Dramos). There are sarcophagi
inside the tombs. Some of
these sarcophagi have sacred stories
or sacred mythological embossments
on them. Also some antique
stone ovens were discovered
to the east of Doliche Village.
Doliche was a cultural center of
several belief systems such as Teshub,
Zeus, and Iupiter Dolichenus.
For the duration of Hittite Empire
2000 BC, there was a temple
of god of sky and storm. He is depicted
holding a triple thunderbolt
and a double-headed axe on a
sacred bull. They had sculpted
these figurines out of bronze. During
Hellenistic and Roman period,
the ideology of Teshub was
kept the same. The only difference
is his name was changed to Zeus
and Jupiter. Roman soldiers showed
sympathy for the cult of Jupiter
Dolichenus with a great respect.
They used little necklaces of
Iupiter Dolichenus for strength.
They were the spreaders of this
religion in Rome. Graeco-Roman
Mithras belief was also very common
in the ancient city of Doliche.
Known biggest underground Mithras
temple in the world was discovered
at the south edge of Keber
Hill in Doliche. It has two salons.
During the time of Byzantine
Empire, Doliche maintained its
sacred city status by becoming
archbishopric. In this period, the
city became a province center
with the name “Telukh”. During
the attacks of Arabs, the city got
an excessive amount of damage;
therefore, in 7th century archbishopric
was moved to Zeugma and
the Doliche lost its status as a
sacred city. Starting from that
day, a new city “Ayintap” which
was being built around the fortress
of Gaziantep took Doliche’s
place as the center of cultures and
religions. As the days passed, Doliche
got smaller and became a
village of Ayintap. However, Doliche
maintained its identity as a
sacred place up until present time.