Diyarbakır Hilar Caves

Located 6 km southwest of Ergani District in Diyarbakır Province, within the boundaries of Hilar Village, the Hilar Cliffs are one of the oldest cave settlements in Anatolia. Used as rock tombs between 100 and 325 AD, they possess unique natural beauty and archaeological value due to their historical texture and geographical structure. The harmony between the natural geographical formations created by the longitudinal and transverse erosion of limestone and the archaeological remains, and their relationship with Çayönü Hill, located just 500 meters to the north, further enhances this value.

The first excavations at Hilar Caves were carried out by the Çayönü excavation team in 1979. As part of the "Project for the Preservation and Opening of Çayönü Hill and Hilar Caves to Tourism," excavations were conducted in the necropolis area between 2006 and 2010. These excavations revealed not only the existing burial chambers in the necropolis area but also new burial chambers, rock niche tombs, and boat-shaped tombs carved into the rock. Some of these feature reliefs on their front surfaces. Dating back to late antiquity, the Hilar Caves are among the best examples of magnificent tomb chambers from that period that have survived in the region.

The Diyarbakır Museum Directorate initiated further work in 2023-2024 to designate the area as an archaeological site. As a result of these efforts, in 2024, it was registered as the "Hilar Caves Archaeological Site," the first archaeological site of Diyarbakır.