This text is a fragment of a guidebook to Hattusa: "The Secrets of Hattusa".

The capital of the Hittites - Hattusa - was surrounded by massive fortifications when the Hittite civilization had a status of the Near East superpower. The walls were erected using the natural shape of the terrain or entirely changing it, depending on the architectural and strategic needs. Five monumental gates have been discovered to date along the wall, from west to east: the lower and upper western gates, the Lion Gate, the Sphinx Gate, and the King's Gate. The Lion Gate is the first one that can be seen when following the official sightseeing route around Hattusa.

The Lion Gate is located in the southwest of the city, in the Upper Town, on the modern street that today's visitors can use to explore the area. In Hittite times, a road led in a wide arc along the inside of the city wall to the King's Gate in the east and further to the royal castle of Büyükkale, via which the gate could be reached from the city area in both the east and the west. A highway running south was connected to the outside.

History of research and restoration

The Lion Gate was never buried underground during its existence. This is already shown in a drawing by the French traveller Charles Texier, who travelled through Anatolia in 1834 and also visited Boğazköy, which he thought was the ruins of the Median Pteria. Later, the walls were only further uncovered at the outer entrance. In 1965, the eastern interior of the gate chamber was rebuilt.

From 2009, the outer front was extensively restored as part of the excavations of the German Archaeological Institute in Istanbul under the direction of Andreas Schachner. The main focus was on treating cracks and crumbling that had been caused by fire in ancient times. First, the remains of a putty applied in the 1960s were removed, which had come loose and taken on an unsightly colour. The cracks in the stonework and the lions' bodies were closed with a stone filler. Moss and lichen were only removed where they were in the way of the additions, as they otherwise had no disruptive effect on the overall impression of the ensemble.

The restorations were carried out in such a way that they did not significantly disturb the overall picture, but remain recognizable upon closer inspection. In order to restore the monumental overall view, the head of the left lion, which was lost at an unknown time, was reconstructed. The head of the right lion served as a template, although it is slightly smaller than the left one. The head was modelled on site from clay, molded, and a plaster model was cast from it. This served as a template for the actual reconstruction using stone filler mortar. The different surface structure and the simplified representation of the fur ornamentation ensure that the reconstruction is recognizable here too.

Description

With the exception of the Sphinx Gate, which not only served as an entrance to the city but mainly had a cultic function, all city gates had a similar structure of two rectangular towers. The towers of the Lion Gate measure around 10 by 15 meters, the gate chamber is over six meters wide, and almost eight meters deep. The outer gate courtyard in front of the lion figures is four meters deep. The passages between the jambs measure three meters.

The right, southeastern tower is divided into six chambers inside, the left - only into four. The towers were erected of polygonal masonry, the stone bases are partially preserved up to a height of 4.6 meters. Their front is divided on the city side by three pilasters, at the corners and in the middle.

The stones were delivered in a roughly hewn state and only brought into their exact shape on site. The final smoothing was not carried out on the outer front of the towers. This has often been seen as a reason for dating the gates to the last phase of the Hittite Empire at the end of the 13th - beginning of the 12th century BCE. It is also possible that the building was started in the late 14th century BCE, before the capital was moved under Muwattalli II, and was not completed afterwards due to the changed function of the Upper Town.

The Lion Gate demonstrates the details of Hittite sculpture of the 14th century BCE period and represents the excellent craftsmanship of Hittite masons. The blocks of stone that were used for its construction are connected with so-called polygonal technique. In this technique, the visible surfaces of the stones are dressed with straight sides or joints, giving the block the appearance of a polygon. It is said that in the case of the Lion Gate in Hattusa not even the thinnest sliver of paper can be put between the stones, as they fit perfectly together. The Lion Gate is similar to the construction techniques seen in Mycenaean Greece, in particular, to another Lion Gate - the one at the entrance to the city of Mycenae.

The mighty jamb stones of the passages originally consisted of several blocks, a mighty monolith that supports the gate figures, and above it two blocks set in corbel technique. They closed to form a parabola, the inner height of which is estimated to be about five meters. On the inside of the base, at a height of about 50 centimetres, a groove in the stone is made on the right and left, increasing the width of the passage to over three meters, which almost corresponds to the passage width of 3.25 meters at the King's Gate. It was, most possibly, done to protect the outer posts, which are particularly important because of the sculptures, from damage by the hubs of wagons.

Both passages could be closed with wooden doors, which were probably covered with bronze sheeting on the outside. In contrast to the King's Gate, only one of the hinge stones on which the gate wings rotated has been preserved here. The gates could be closed and sealed from the inside and were secured with bar bolts, the insertion holes of which can still be seen. According to a Hittite cuneiform text, it was one of the mayor's duties to ensure every morning that a "Lord of Hatti" or a commanding officer, or whichever "Lord" was otherwise assigned, checked the seals, and then opened the gates.

On the outside of the door jambs, there are the two lion sculptures that give the gate its name. The animals' heads, chests, and front legs are depicted, with the paws occupying a separate block of rock. The head with the mane and whiskers is depicted in very finely worked lines. These engravings are the only place in Hattusa where the stonework was carried out with metal tools. The mouth is open, the tongue hangs out. However, canine teeth, which are otherwise often seen in Hittite lion depictions, are missing.

The eyes are first drilled in, then they were filled with a white lime mass with black pupils. The fur of the upper body is also worked in a fine, almost ornamental depiction. Lion figures can be found throughout the Near East, as well as at other gates in the city, for example at Büyükkale and at temple entrances. In addition to their function as decoration and guardians of the gate, they also had a cultic significance. This is also evidenced by the hollows that are incorporated into the block with the paws and were probably used to hold libations. The silhouettes of these wild animals with open jaws and wide open eyes most likely played a protective function - they were to scare away evil spirits from the city. This explanation has been deduced by the researchers based on the similarity of the lion theme to other such representations, known from Hittite and Mesopotamian architecture.

To the left of the head of the left lion, some punched hieroglyphic characters can be seen when the sun is in good position. The possible transcription states: "Large seat of the lulu at the gate(building)."

The outer approach to the Lion Gate comes as a ramp from the right, i.e. from the south to the gate. It had an outer accompanying wall and an additional tower with a connection to the city wall, which adjoins the gate towers on both sides. They formed a kind of kennel in front of the entrance, in which enemies could be attacked from two sides before they reached the gate. Only a little of this structure has been preserved at the Lion Gate; at the King's Gate, whose floor plan is a mirror image of it, the basic features of the walls and tower are more clearly visible.