Gavurkale Relief Most scholars agree that the Gavurkale (or Gavurkalesi, literally Infidel's Castle) monument dates back to the Great Hittite period possibly 14th c. BCE. The reliefs are carved on a cliff face on the crest of a natural hill that rises 60 meters above the floor of the narrow valley of Babayakup river. It depicts three deities. On the flattened rock face two large human figures are clearly visible. Both men have pointed hats, and shoes with curled-up toes. Both carry swords in their belts. These are two Hittite gods(?) walking towards a less visible seated figure on the left, possibly a goddess. The hats of the male figures have horns which are signs of divinity. The first figure has no beard but the second one does (see Kohlmeyer's drawing below). The goddess also has a similar conical hat. The area around the goddess figure possibly had a script too, but nothing is left of it. Ekrem Akurgal suggests the male figures represent the Storm-god and his son. Together with the female figure they form a triad as father, mother and son, similar to the one at Yazılıkaya at Boğazköy. The goddess figure is located slightly higher on the rock, and thus damaged by erosion. The main study at the site was made by H.H. von der Osten in 1930. He proposed that the reliefs and the cyclopean structure around it formed an isolated hilltop monument approached by a processional way and a ramp. Since then, it has also been described as a possible royal funerary monument. In 1993 new investigations were initiated at Gavurkale and within its surrounding valley. It was suggested that the site was architecturally much more complex than the simple enclosure postulated by von der Osten. The scattered Hittite ceramics on the slope below the reliefs and on a single terrace opposite them indicate that the monument was not an isolated one, but was, in fact, accompanied by some type of settlement. This new data may bolster the notion that Gavurkale served as a religious or royal funerary institution during the Hittite period. Click on pictures for a larger image.

Image sources:
Tayfun Bilgin, Bora Bilgin, Ertuğrul Anıl, 2009.
Mehmet Anıl, 2008
Horst Ehringhaus. Götter, Herrscher, Inschriften. 2005, Zabern. ISBN 3805334699.
Kurt Bittel, Die Hethiter, Beck, München 1976, ISBN 3406030246.
George Perrot drawing from 1880s
Kay Kohlmeyer, "Felsbilder der hethitischen Großreichszeit", Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica 15, 1983. ISBN 3896467123
Ekrem Akurgal, Anatolia, 1958