Yesemek Open Air Museum

Yesemek is known as the largest stone quarry and sculpture workshop in the Middle East between the 14^th century BCE and the 7^th century BCE. The workshop, where the local people of Hurrians worked, was put into operation in the second half of the 2^nd millennium BCE, when the region came under Hittite rule during the time of the Hittite King Shuppiluma I. The workshop, which suspended its activities during the migration of the Sea Peoples in 1,200 BCE, started to work again during the Late Hittite Kingdoms from the 9^th century BCE. In the new period, especially Hittite, Syrian, Aramaic and Assyrian art elements have gained importance. This style, known as Orientalism, formed the core of Greek art by influencing the Aegean Cultures that started to develop in the West.

Towards the end of the 7^th century BCE, Assyrians stopped the activities of the workshop and took the masters to Assyria. Having lost its masters, everything remained as it was in the workshop, and from that moment on, for the Yesemek time was literally frozen.

The Yesemek Quarry and Sculpture Workshop (Yesemek Taş Ocağı ve Heykel Müzesi), which was established on an area of 110 decares and apparently operated with a great organization, reveals all steps one by one, from quarrying to the completion of the sculpture drafts. The quarry and workshop were active for about 500 years. They are important, as they are the only example that has survived until today. Hittite cities such as Zincirli and Sakçagözü, ordered the works from here.

Today, in the Open-Air Museum, where nearly 500 sculptures and orthostat drafts are extracted from underground and displayed in a certain order, the gate lions, the guardians of the gates of Hittite cities constitute the vast majority of the drafts.  Monumental sphinxes (female-headed winged lion), bear man, chariot, mountain men, hunting scenes are other important artifacts in the workshop.