Gultepe Necropolis

 

Necropolis is a combined word in old Greek and consists of two words; Necros and Polis. Necros means corpse and polis is province, city. When two words are used together, it means city of graves or in general and large sense it means city of graves, or large graveyard. Necropolis, is the name given to large graveyards in the cities of especially in antique ages. Antique age Necropolis that was found coincidentally during the work conducted by Highway Commission, a hepogy was found, remnants of 'sacred construction' belonging to Byzantium times. (Hepogy means in short underground graveyard. It is seen in some of the old civilizations,Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome.

 

There used to be hepogies as rooms excavated underground. There were also artificial hills carved in the rocks or constructed above ground and turned into a hill with soil). Around the  vicinity, there are also 'bone containers' belonging to Roman period, called 'Tile Grave' with a size of 35 cm x 40 cm in triangular form, in which the bones of the corpses burned or boiled were placed. Also sarcophaguses from the Roman period belonging to the second and third centuries can be seen in he upper sections of the region.