Documentary made on Arslantepe Mound

MALATYA

British historian, writer and publisher Bettany Mary Hughes has made a documentary film on Arslantepe Mound, which is on the UNESCO Cultural Heritage List in the eastern province of Malatya.

Hughes and her team came to Turkey in cooperation with the Culture and Tourism Ministry and the Turkey Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA) and started shooting on April 15.

The team’s field production included filming at Nevşehir Tokalı Church, Kaymaklı Underground City and the Zelve Open Air Museum and Arslantepe early in the morning to view the plain and the Euphrates during sunrise.

After the Palace Complex, which helped Arslantepe to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, the unique artifacts unearthed in the mound were filmed at the Archaeology Museum.

The documentary, which is set to be broadcast on BBC and Channel 4 at the end of the year under the title “Treasures of Turkey,” is produced by Sandstone Global. Anna Thomson is the director of the documentary, while Timothy James Knight and Timothy John Boylen are the cameramen, with Olivia Rowan Hansen as assistant producer.

After shooting Arslantepe and the museum, the team made a tour to the cherry orchards in the Yeşilyurt district. Stating that they like cherry blossoms, Hughes and his team moved to Adıyaman after taking a photo shoot in the garden of cherry producer Gökhan Gök.

Following the shootings on Mount Nemrut, the documentary team will move on to Şanlıurfa to film Göbeklitepe and Karahantepe, both famous archaeological sites with significant religious and cultural importance, as well as the museum and Zeugma in Gaziantep. Documentaries prepared by Hughes have previously been published by the National Geographic. The documentaries are currently broadcast on history channel Viasat History.