Hattusa's Green Stone
The Green Stone (Yeşil Taş) is a green-coloured rock with an unusually smooth surface, standing out from the surrounding stonework in the Great Temple precinct — in the Lower City — of the Hattusa ancient site. In Boğazkale Municipality’s visitor-facing “Hattusa Heritage Atlas”, it appears as a stop of its own, alongside the Lion Gate and Yazılıkaya.
An Unknown Function
What the stone was originally used for is not known with certainty. Rather than presenting the various legends surrounding it as historical fact, Boğazkale Municipality’s official page introduces visitors directly to the stone’s location, texture and setting within the Great Temple precinct, citing the UNESCO World Heritage Centre as its source. No firm historical claim about the stone’s function should therefore be made; what is known is limited to its physical characteristics.
Visiting
The Great Temple, in Hattusa’s Lower City, is known as the city’s largest sacred precinct. The Green Stone is one of the points where visitors touring this large temple area often pause, drawn by curiosity. For Hattusa’s general history and other stops, see Hattusa; for the district’s history, see History of Boğazkale.