The Kybele rock relief is at the Akpınar picnic ground, seven kilometres from Manisa on the Turgutlu road. The figure — described on the Ministry's page as a Hittite deity — is shown seated on a flat rock face and measures eight by ten metres. Weathering has damaged parts of it, but the way the figure clasps its breast with both hands and wears a cylindrical headdress can still be made out, and traces of four Hittite hieroglyphs can be seen with difficulty on its right.
The relief is dated to the second half of the thirteenth century BC. Kybele was the mother goddess worshipped throughout the Anatolian peninsula, the Magna Mater; she is recorded as having formed a cult at Magnesia under the name Sipylene, and she appears on the coins of Magnesia as well.
Getting there
- Access
- At the Akpınar picnic area on the Manisa–Turgutlu road, seven kilometres from central Manisa.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Manisa as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 6.7 °C in January to 28.1 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in April, May, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in December (137 mm) and lightest in August (9 mm). Long-term means for 1930-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
