The tourist gate and ticket house are ready at the ancient city of Karkemish, where Turkish troops crossed last month into Syria and ousted Islamic State militants from the border.
Despite Syria’s civil war, archaeologists on the Turkish side of border-straddling Karkemish unearthed sculptures, mosaics and other artifacts in relative safety although sporadic gunfire and shelling was occasionally audible from the Syrian side. Now they plan to open the remains of the strategic city from the Hittite era to the public next year, despite the proximity of conflict in neighboring Syria.
Such are the modern fortunes of Karkemish, which dates back thousands of years and was excavated before World War I by British archaeologists including T.E. Lawrence, later known as Lawrence of Arabia. A century later, the area was demined and a Turkish-Italian team started work at the site controlled by the Turkish military.
Then came Turkey’s Aug. 24 military incursion into Syria from the Karkemish area, which could ease security worries about the archaeological park on the Euphrates. Its opening, delayed several times, is scheduled for May 2017.
“The situation is definitely more favorable to tourism,” said Nicolo Marchetti, a professor of archaeology and art history of the Ancient Near East at the University of Bologna and project director at Karkemish on the Turkish side.