Stone circles in Turkey
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The 3,000 year old stone circles and steles in the necropolis area of the Urartian Kingdom in Van's Tusba district, eastern Turkey, are shedding light on its Iron Age past.
Covering an area of 1,600 square meters, more than 2,000 steles, some weighing up to 500 kilos, have been carefully erected by the Urartian Kingdom for funerary purposes. Researchers believe they also held astronomical significance, and that they represented a calendar system.
This archaeological site, which is being dubbed the Stonehenge of Anatolia, is unique in Turkey. With the publication of its discovery, researchers fear that inadequate measures of protection will risk the preservation of the site as the number of visitors grow. Excavations, which began in 2004 but ended in 2007, are expected to resume in the future.
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