About 10 km to the north of Kâhta, a 35m high mound of limestone rubble measuring some 110m in diameter overlooks the valleys of the Taurus mountains. The Karakuş Tumulus is a funerary monument built by Mithridates II of Commagene in 35-20 BC for members of his family. The tumulus…

The Tumulus of Evessen — Landscapes have their history and stories, and sometimes the emotions evoked by a place already let you guess a part of them. If you drive through Evessen in northern Germany, you will notice a single eerie looking tree on a mound in the center of the small village. …

Yazılıkaya (Turkish for ‘inscribed rock’) is a Hittite sacntuary of the 13th century BC, located at a distance of roughly 2,5 km from the capital Ḫattuša. The sanctuary is divided into two main roofless chambers, in fact natural rock outcrops, whose walls of up to 12 m height have been…

Alacahöyük is a fascinating site for Bronze Age archaeologists. During the Early Bronze Age, it was a central place of the Hattian Culture, the forerunners of the Hittites. During excavations by Hâmit Zübeyir Koşay and Remzi Oğuz Arık in the 1930ies, 13 “princely graves” dating to around 2350–2150 BC were…

People have always been inventive when it comes to clothing. Much of prehistoric fashion made from organic materials is gone for good. What is however preserved is a wide range of headgear made from more durable materials. And some of these headdresses from prehistory are really astonishing. …

Harran is definetly one of the must-sees if you are spending a few days in the Urfa region of southeastern Turkey. Harran has the famous traditional „beehive“ adobe houses, the ruins of the first university of the Islamic world and a settlement history spanning several thousand years. It was once…

Ein kleiner Geheimtip für Besucher von Bukarest ist das Stadtmuseum, zentral am Universitätsplatz gelegen. Der Erfolg von Ausstellungen hat viel damit zu tun, ob Menschen sich vom Gesehenen persönlich angesprochen fühlen, ob Besucher eine emotionale Verbindung zum Gezeigten aufbauen können. …