Sirkeli Höyüğü

Sirkeli Hoyuk is one of the largest settlement mounds in Plain Cilicia, measuring roughly 300 x 400 metres and rising 30 metres high on the Ceyhan River in Adana province. Continuously inhabited since the Late Chalcolithic period (c. 4000 BCE), it is best known for a rock relief of Hittite King Muwatalli II (c. 1290-1272 BCE), possibly carved after the Battle of Kadesh. An Iron Age amulet reading 'Bey of Lawazantiyan' in Hittite hieroglyphs suggests the site may be the ancient cult centre of Lawazantiya, sacred to the goddess Sauska.