Yazılıkaya Openair Temple

Hattusha's most impressive sacred site is the open-air shrine of Yazılıkaya open-air shrine (Yazılıkaya Açık Hava Tapınağı), hidden among the high cliffs slightly outside the city. This open-air temple, used for the New Year celebrations of the period, features reliefs of the country’s important gods and goddesses, engraved in rows on the rock. Yazılıkaya, which can be visited in two sections, Rooms A and B, reflects the Hittite pantheon with its majestic rock carvings, depicting the gods and goddesses of the ancient world. Yazılıkaya, regarded as the national temple of the Hittite Empire, is believed to have been isolated from the outside world by a wall during its first construction phase. The second phase of the temple, along with the reliefs in the Grand Gallery, was built during the reign of Hattusili III, while the reliefs in the Grand Gallery and the third phase of the temple, including the depiction of Tudhaliya in the Small Gallery, were completed during the reign of Tudhaliya IV. This national temple, now called Yazılıkaya, lies two kilometers northeast of Hattuşaş (Boğazköy). Built on natural rock, the open-air temple is surrounded by structures from three distinct periods. In the first period, a siege wall was erected to isolate the rock temple from the outside world. In the second phase, a traditional Hittite temple was added, complete with a monumental entrance. In the third period, the eastern wing of the main structure was transformed into a more functional entrance in front of the Small Gallery. The first figures in Room A include reliefs of twelve underground gods, and the central scene on the back wall depicts the meeting of God Teshub and Goddess Hepat. At the end of the goddess figures, opposite the main scene, stands Tudhaliya IV, the largest figure in this open-air temple.