Arslantepe Mound

I visited in Spring 2025. There are extensive renovations going on currently, so I would estimate only around 30% of the site is available to view currently. In addition, the Malatya archeology museum is also closed, so you can't go to see the artifacts that were discovered at Arslantepe. I am not sure when both the museum and the site will be fully open again. 

To get to Arslantepe, I used public transportation. Good news -- as of recently, you can tap on with any contactless credit card, so you don't need to buy a pre-paid Malatya card! I used the Moovit app to plan my trip but there may be a better option out there. 

When I arrived, I was given the option to use an audio guide, which is available in English, Italian, Turkish, and German. The audio signs were not marked in any clear pattern and I had a hard time knowing when I was supposed to be using it. This might have something to do with so many portions of the site undergoing renovations. There are also signs in Turkish, English, and Italian you can read that explain the history of the site. The rock art was not covered with any curtains while I was there, so it was easy to spot. I was the only person there.

Overall, I can see why the site is important enough to be a WHS. However, the signage was a bit confusing and I couldn't view …

*½ stars.

Turkey's worst entry into the world heritage list by miles (I think Xanthos gets a bad rep and should be a collection of sites anyway), it's not even easy to visit. The location is in the suburbs of Malatya and we are talking farm community, with odd roads and not even a proper parking lot. So I stopped at what had a "no parking" sign anyway just in front of the site. A 100m walk to the entrance and you are greeted by a guard. There are opening hours on a small sign but it seems one can only enter with a custodian, and they take turns. Maybe this isn't the case in high season but it makes sense because one enters a digsite and touching/damaging the walls is done easily. I had to wait for a couple of people to come out first and then the guard let me in. There are excellent displays as you make your way into the digsite, in Turkish, English and ITALIAN?!

There are layers of history here, the building isn't really recognizable as a palace, and all findings are taken to the nearby Malatya museum so you should make time for both. Just seeing the site is rubbish, but my rating is for the site alone. The remaining bits are shards of pottery and some sort of plumbing, and the highlight was clearly the "motif" as he said, the wall paintings. Usually they are roped off but he let …

Anatolia is the go to place for early human settlements. The latest addition by the Turks in this area is Arslantepe Mound in 2021. What you will find is a hill with a "palace". It's all based on mud bricks and excavations are still ongoing. Seeing the size of the hill (tell), I would assume more buildings to be unearthed in the next decade or so.

There is a walkway across the public parts of the ruin. It's not huge, but allows you to explore the site. They did put up some signs which helps shed some light on the site.

The single greatest feature of the site are the rock drawings. I had seen them on Clyde's and Stanislaw's reviews. But they were nowhere to be seen when I visited. I was about to give up when Clyde via whatsapp let me know, that they are protected via curtains. You have to ask the guard to remove them. He did and the rock art is stunning, especially as it's displayed in situ rather than a museum.

The site was originally referred. I would argue that there is no overall reason against inscription and that the site belongs on the list. Reason I could see for a referral is that given the ongoing excavations, inscription could have taken place later to get a full picture of the site. I could also see approaching the Malatya area as a whole and documenting the human settlement of the area …

I visited this WHS in Spring 2021. If you're travelling by car between Goreme National Park and Nemrut Dagi, the Arslantepe Mound near Malatya is a rather convenient stopover point. Knowing that this site was up for inscription in Summer 2021, I made an extra effort to visit the Arslantepe Mound which shows the interaction between Eastern Anatolia and Mesopotamia.

The Arslantepe Mound is a Late Hittite large mud-brick complex of several buildings. Unlike Gobeklitepe and Catalhoyuk, which have circular elevated boardwalks around and above the sites at quite a distance, Arslantepe (at least when I visited) had wooden boardwalks and textile carpets which go through the corridors with walls which still have visible sections with white plaster, and red and black wall paintings. This is quite impressive when considering that they were done around 3350-3000 BC. A very kind security guard revealed the red and black paintings which were covered by white curtains. Apart from the peculiar wall paintings, another highlight were the decorative coloured geometric engravings, technically described as lozenge-shaped stamps applied to wet plaster. Several detailed information boards shed light on what you're seeing during your visit. In front of the site's entrance, there's also a reconstruction of an Early Bronze Age I Arslantepe House (2900-2800 BC).

Arslantepe (Lion Hill), also known as Melid, was an ancient city on the Tohma River, a tributary of the upper Euphrates rising in the Taurus Mountains. It is dubbed as Arslantepe, the origins of power, due to the …

Visited November 2020

Turkey has already the oldest proto-urban settlement (Neolithic Site of Çatalhöyük) and the oldest temple/sacred site (Göbekli Tepe) inscribed on World Heritage List, and probably soon the oldest palace or rather administrative and residential complex will find its place on the List – Archaeological Site of Arslantepe. By writing ‘oldest’ I mean the oldest and most remarkable found until now.

I’ve never heard about Arlsantepe before it was nominated for 2020; but reading the short description on Unesco site, I realized that this one is widely known as Melid, a late or neo-Hittite settlement located in Central Anatolia, far from any other Turkish heritage sites already inscribed. When you look at the map, it seems not so distant from Nemrut Dağı… But it only seems… And without a car, it takes hours and hours and multiple connections to get from one to the other. The closed place to visit for WH chasers is Harput, in Elaziğ, on TL from 2018.

So why do we have two different names for the same site? Melid or Malidiya in Hittite language was the name of the Neo-Hittite city established after the collapse of Hattuşa (13th/12th century B.C.). After the invasion of the Sea People, they (Hittites) moved south and south-east and occupied the territories already developed by previous inhabitants (Ishuwa for Hittites), like Carchemish, Zinchirli or today’s Malatya region. And this later place they called Malidiya. Let’s get back to 20th century: during the excavations works the …