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

The Sphinx Gate (tr. Sfenksli Kapı) in Hattusa is situated in the central part of the fortifications, running along the artificial Yerkapı embankment. Unlike the Lion Gate and the King's Gate, it is not surrounded by towers, but leads directly through the tower.

It consists of two doorways, of which only the outer one was once equipped with a pair of wooden doors. All four pillars were once decorated with silhouettes of sphinxes. The sphinxes from the inner part are almost three-dimensional: they looked from their position towards the Hittite capital, raising their wings and proudly showing their tails. The Hittites probably created these figures under Egyptian influence, but the Hittite sphinxes differ quite significantly from the Egyptian ones: they have softer features and female faces. Because the Sphinx Gate is accessed by steep stone steps, it is believed that this gate was opened only on special occasions: feast days or religious ceremonies.

Because the Sphinx Gate is accessed by steep stone steps, it is believed that this gate was opened only on special occasions: feast days or religious ceremonies.

Description

While the other four city gates have parabolic openings and are flanked by two towers, the Sphinx Gate has an entrance through a gate tower with two rectangular door openings closed off by lintels. The outer entrance was 2.8 meters high and 1.3 meters wide, the inner passage is slightly offset to the east and has the same width.

The outer gate could be closed with two-door leaves, while the inner gate was always freely accessible. The traces of the swinging gate leaves can still be seen on the hinge stones on the side of the door threshold. The Sphinx Gate was not suitable for carriages, but was a pure pedestrian gate. It can only be reached from the outside via the two staircases that lead up to the steep wall of Yerkapı embankment in the east and west.

The gate complex was decorated with four sphinx figures, which flanked the gate in pairs inside and outside. Today, copies are displayed on the inside, and the restored originals are in the local museum in Boğazkale. On the outside, only a fragment of the western sphinx can be seen, with the face, chest and large parts of the headdress missing. The block with the right, eastern sphinx is completely missing; it was probably removed in ancient times as building material. The preserved jamb block was found broken in front of the gate. It also has grooves on the back that Roman or Byzantine craftsmen made in preparation for cutting it into transportable pieces.

The two sphinx figures on the city side were excavated in 1907, and it was established that they had been badly damaged by fire. After restoration, copies were re-erected at the Sphinx Gate in 2012/13 and give an impression of what the gate complex used to look like.

The figure of the sphinx came from Egypt via Syria to Central Anatolia at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE. There, male sphinx figures with horned caps became attributes of gods, mainly on seals. The female sphinx, recognizable by her facial features and body shape, took on a function as a witness and guardian of cult acts and contracts. In this function, she often appears as a gatekeeper figure, especially in the Hittite Empire.

The most completely preserved figure on the east side of the gate is almost 2.6 meters high. The wings and the body are designed in relief. The face has a round shape, the mouth is pressed together, the eyes are inlaid. On both sides of the face, there are wide braids that flow down into curls on the chest. They form the Hathor hairstyle, named after the Egyptian goddess.

The head is covered with a helmet with horns on the front as a symbol of a deity. Above this, there is a pointed cap. It is decorated with six rosettes, similar to those seen on a sphinx figure from the Nişantaş, now in the Boğazkale Museum. A large wing rises to the side, and the tail stands up like a cat's above the sturdy hind legs.

On the side facing the city, there was a porch in front of the gate. It consisted of several rooms. One of them, which is located directly in front of the gate, takes up the entire width of the gate tower and is 1.4 meters deep. It is probably an open vestibule. Two small chambers to the right and left were possibly guard rooms. To the west there is a complex of elongated rooms measuring 16 by 8 meters, the function of which is unclear.

On the wing of the western sphinx, at about eye level, graffiti in Luwian hieroglyphs was inscribed. The two characters REX for king and SCRIBA for scribe can be seen. The Turkish Hittitologist Metin Alparslan concluded, with some reservations, that a king who was able to write was responsible for the inscription. The British Hittitologist John David Hawkins also recognized the sign AURIGA for charioteer and thus read the text as "King's Charioteer Niya, the Scribe."

The gate complex probably had a ritual function together with the mighty, paved wall of Yerkapı. The German prehistorian and former excavation director Jürgen Seeher suspected that the ramp was used as a gigantic stage for cultic acts. The mass of spectators stood outside and awaited the appearance of a priest with a cult image from the Sphinx Gate.

The sphinxes from the gate and their travels

The story of the four Hittite sphinxes that once decorated the Sphinx Gate in Hattusa finally had a happy ending after almost one hundred years. During the early excavations under the direction of the Assyriologist Hugo Winckler and Theodor Makridi, a curator of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, the gate chamber was uncovered as early as 1907. The two blocks with the inner sphinx figures were so badly damaged by fire that they were dismantled for restoration and later taken to the Near East Museum in Berlin in 1917. Of the two sphinxes left in Hattusa, one, although badly damaged, is still recognizable, while the other was completely destroyed.

The better preserved western sphinx was returned to Turkey after restoration in Germany in 1924 and was on display in the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul. A dispute arose between Turkey, which demanded its return, and the German museums over the second sculpture that remained in Berlin, where it could be admired in the Near East Museum.

Afterwards, the dispute escalated to the point where Turkey threatened to withdraw the excavation licence for Hattusa. After many years of efforts by Turkey to recover the "kidnapped" sphinx, an agreement was finally reached in May 2011. Germany, in the name of good relations with Turkey, agreed to return the missing sphinx to Turkey. The signed memorandum stipulated that the sphinx would arrive in Turkey by November 28, 2011. The choice of this date was not without symbolic significance - 25 years earlier, also on November 28, Hattusa was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Ultimately, the sphinx returned to Turkey from Germany even a little earlier. To remove it from the Pergamon Museum, it was necessary to carry out a difficult operation because it was wall-mounted at the museum. The sphinx was brought to Turkey on July 28 and underwent maintenance in the Istanbul Restoration and Conservation Center Laboratory.

Finally, the returned sphinx was transported to Hattusa under tight security measures. There, the ceremony was held on 26 November 2011 with the participation of Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay. Now, this sphinx, along with another sphinx that had been previously exhibited at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, is on display at the Boğazköy Museum next to the archaeological site of Hattusa.

Moreover, the Sphinx Gate in Hattusa has the replicas of these sphinxes. These copies were installed at the Sphinx Gate itself in 2012 and 2013, made from a silicone mold created by the Berlin Museum. The copies were designed in such a way that the viewer can see which pieces are original and which are restored.