Arslantepe

Arslantepe — Turkish for 'Lion Hill' — is an oval settlement mound (tell) roughly six kilometres northeast of Malatya in eastern Anatolia, rising some 30 metres above the surrounding plain. Human occupation here stretches back to the 6th millennium BC, but the site's greatest significance lies in the late 4th millennium BC, when one of the world's earliest known palace complexes was constructed — a centralised administrative centre that predates the Mesopotamian city-states and stands as evidence of early state formation in Anatolia. The site takes its modern name from Neo-Hittite basalt lion sculptures unearthed during excavations, now displayed at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. Ongoing Italian-Turkish archaeological campaigns have uncovered layers spanning the Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, and Neo-Hittite periods. Visitors today walk an active excavation site with exposed mudbrick walls and broad views across the Malatya plain.