Two granite sculptures of lions in full size with a mass of about five tons each, created between 1400-mi and the 1200s BC may have guarded the sacred source. Found on the territory of modern Turkey artifacts were created by the mysterious Hittites back in the days when "the king of beasts" led his pride in the foothills of Asia Minor.

"Lions depicted in motion, their heads slightly lowered, so that the crown above the heads"writes Jeffrey summers (Geoffrey Summers) of middle East technical University and his Turkish counterpart in an article published in the latest issue of the American archaeological American journal of Archaeology.

Sculptures of lions differ from each other, on this basis, the archeologists concluded that they were made by different masters. Especially true sculpture of a lion was found in the village Karakas (Karakiz), playing with muscles and curving around the back of the granite boulder tail.

"Sculptors, of course, knew how are these lions" - said in an interview with the web portal LiveScience summers. According to the archaeological data and cuneiform sources, in Asia minor, the lion, had completely disappeared on the territory of modern Turkey, 3.5 thousand years ago the Hittites hunted. The old Testament hero Samson was fighting with a lion, inhabited Asia Minor. Curiously, the statue of Karakasa as a result of oxidation of minerals contained in stone, was colored in orange. According to summers, when this sculpture was cut, it was a very different connotation.

The story of the opening of the sculptural image of Lviv goes in 2001, when the Turkish co-author of the current article in the American archaeological journal, at that time, the former Director of the Museum of the city Yozgat (Yozgat) in Central Anatolia, report the employees of the Ministry of culture that the village Karakas found an ancient quarry. In the spring of 2002 field activities began, but "black archeologists" ahead "white": apparently believing that inside shapes hidden treasures, some dynamite split Lviv in half. The second lion statue, found to the North-East from the village, also was split. Now we have a sculptural composition, assembled from fragments.

Next to the massive lions found great to two meters in diameter, stone pool. This find made the archaeologists to think about. Because excavations in the vicinity found no traces of the Hittite settlement relating to the design-time career. The size of the sculpture was indicated that they were not going to move over long distances. It was logical to assume, decided summers that sculptures of lions was intended for decoration of the reservoir, and not the Royal Palace or town.

"According to Hittite cuneiform texts, the water was effective element of purification, - write in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, two researchers, whose point of view coincides with the hypothesis put forward by summers, -ispolzuemye for washing or bathing during the ritual of the".

To the fact that the proximity of one of the most abundant in the district water sources, you can add that Hittite sculptural tradition is somehow connected with water. The sacred source "Aflatun Pinar" - Eflatunp?nar (translated from Turkish language or as "the Source of Plato", or "Lilac source"), located 70 kilometers to the West of the city of Konya (Konya) in the Turkish Anatolia, is a water-pool, the size of 30 to 34 meters. On its North side of the relief stone blocks facade erected height of 4.2 metres and a width of seven meters. According to popular belief, the ancient Greek sage Plato, of which there is revered as a great magician, many years have lived near lake Beysehir (Beysehir G?l?) and gave the ancient Hittite the monument at the source of its present appearance.

The Hittites continue to be one of the most mysterious people in the history of mankind. In Turkey recently discovered five-foot statue of the Hittite ruler of Conului - capital pozdneskifskogo state Unki, which existed from 1000-th to 738 year BC. Several researchers identify Conului biblical Calneh (in old Testament prophecy of Isaiah is one of the cities destroyed by the Assyrians). On bent hands of the statue depicts bracelets in the form of a lion's head. Next to the statue was found semi-circular pedestal of the column is decorated with a relief image of a winged lion.

The label lists the achievements and feats of Suppiluliuma - ruler of Cunow and the king of state Unki that were Hittite-Syrian coalition against Assyria and defeated shalmeneser I III in 858 year BC. But one should not confuse it with the namesake - other Hittite king Suppiluliumas I (1380-1335 BC), the winner of Egypt, who won all the Eastern Mediterranean to the Palestinians.