Karkamış Ancient City

The most powerful of the Late Hittite Kingdoms, established in 300 years following the fall of the Hittite Empire towards the beginning of the 12^th century BCE, was the Kingdom of Carchemish. Carchemish came under the influence of the Hittites, who captured the city Aleppo and most of Syria in the second half of the 17^th century BCE. After the fall of the Hittite Empire around 1,195 BCE, Carchemish became one of the strongest independent kingdoms of the region. The city was destroyed by the Assyrian Sargon II in 717 BCE. As a result of the excavations, many new hieroglyph Luwian inscriptions, clay tablets, graceful walking lion, winged bull and winged goat-bull reliefs, mosaic floors, were unearthed. Most of the Karkamış reliefs are exhibited in the Ankara Anatolian Civilizations Museum (Ankara Anadolu Medeniyetleri Müzesi) and the Gaziantep Archaeology Museum (Gaziantep Arkeoloji Müzesi) today. Karkamış Ancient City (Karkamış Antik Kenti) will soon be opened to visitors as an "Archeopark".