The story of Arslantepe

On the stone slab sealing a grave dated to 2900 BC, archaeologists found the bodies of four sacrificed young people. The grave, thought to be a royal tomb, lies near the palace of Arslantepe, also called Melid, a mound 7 km northeast of Malatya. Its cultural layers rise 30 metres and spread over 4.5 hectares, and people lived here from the 6th millennium BC until the 11th century AD.

Regular excavations, begun in 1961 by a team from Rome's La Sapienza University, uncovered a temple, a palace from 3300-3000 BC, many seals, skilfully made metal objects and arsenical copper weapons inlaid with silver. The seals point to a palace economy run by a local ruling class that held political, economic and religious power, making this Anatolia's first city-state. Walk the open-air museum, then look for its two lions and king statue at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara.

The site joined UNESCO's World Heritage List on 26 July 2021.