Turkey's latest UNESCO Heritage Site is the Arslantepe Mound

Turkey’s Arslantepe Mound is the latest site to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. The archaeological structure is about 8000 years old. The announcement to include this new site was made during the UNESCO World Heritage Committee’s 44th session. The organisation said that The Arslantepe Mound is one of the earliest religious, and civil sites of Turkey.
According to a statement by UNESCO, “The archaeological site of Arslantepe is located on Southeastern Turkey on the Malatya plain, 5 kilometers from the city center and 15 km from the Euphrates River. Malatya is merely a one-hour flight distance from Istanbul. It is a 4-hectare and 30-meter high archaeological mound dominating the plain and formed by the superimposition of settlements for millennia from at least the 6th millennium BCE to the late Roman period.”
With the addition of the Arslantepe Mound, Turkey now has 18 cultural and natural sites that are recognised by UNESCO.

The mound is located in the ancient city on the Tohma River, and the earliest habitation dates back to the Chalcolithic Period. The Arslantepe Mound is 30 m tall, and a lot of interesting historical items have been excavated from this region. Metal objects, and even weapons have been excavated from here, including some of the earliest swords known to humankind.
The region is said to have been occupied during the Early Bronze, Late Bronze, and as well as the Iron Age.