Sirkeli Höyük and its Environment
Location and Importance of the Archaeological Site
The site of Sirkeli Höyük, one of the biggest settlement mounds in Cilicia, lies approximately 40 kms east of the modern city of Adana. It is here that the Ceyhan river breaks through the Misis mountain range (Turkish ›Nur Dağ‹). One of the most important trade routes, coming from Syria in the east and leading to the Central Anatolian Plateau (via the ›Cilician Gates‹), apparently crossed the river here.
Location of Sirkeli Höyük.
The importance of this route is also exemplified by the fact that across the river the medieval fortress of Yılan Kalesi is located and also the tracks of the famous ›Baghdad Railway‹ (Bagdad-Bahn) and the modern freeway pass the site of Sirkeli Höyük in close distance.
View from the SE onto Sirkeli Höyük
with Yılan Kale in the Background.
The site measures 300 × 400m in total and consists of an oval-shaped mound of approx. 30m height, a slightly lower, trapezoidal extension of the mound in the north of the Höyük and a flat terrace which seems to have extended to the river. On the other side of the Ceyhan river another part of the settlement has been confirmed. Close to the riverbed, two Hittite rock reliefs were executed in the north-eastern part of the site (cf. Monuments).
View towards Sirkeli Höyük from Yılan Kale.
The site of Sirkeli Höyük seems to have been inhabited from Chalcolithic times onwards (ca. 5000 BC) and was settled during all periods of the Bronze Age (3000–1200 BC), the Iron Age (1200–300 BC) and the Hellenistic Period (300 BC–AD 100).
Probably the site is to be identified with the ancient cultic city of Lawazantiya (Assyrian Lusanda, Greek Loandos, cf. Identification of the site), hometown of the Hittite Queen Puduḫepa, daughter of a priest of the goddess of love Šawuška and spouse of the Hittite King Hattušili II (›III‹, ca. 1265–1236 BC) who concluded the famous peace treaty with the Egyptian King Ramesses II, the oldest surviving document of this type.
Next page: Monuments.