Arslantepe Mound is 7 km. In the northeast of the Euphrates River (Karakaya Dam Lake) near the west coast of the town of Orduzu Arslantepe Höyüğü Cultural Fill 30m. in height. It was inhabited from the 4th millennium BC until the 4th century BC. It was used as a Roman village between the 4th and 6th centuries and later it was settled as a Byzantine necropolis. The first excavations in Arslantepe were carried out by a French team led by Louis Delaporte in the 1930s. The excavation was carried out in Late Hittite layers. Excavations on the stone decorated with a low relief on the side of the courtyard and two lion statue on the two sides of the entrance with a statue of an overturned king and a Late Hittite Palace was found. These works were taken to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara since there were no museums in Malatya at that time and they are already being exhibited there. II. After the World War I, the French archaeologist C.Schaeffer opened several deep soundings in the area, but the permanent excavations were initiated in 1961 by a team from the Roman birkaç La Sapienza University, first under the leadership of Salvatore M. Puglisi and then by Alba Palmieri. Since the death of Palmieri in 1990, Marcella Frangipane has been the director of excavation. As a result of the excavations; A mudbrick palace belonging to BC3300-3000, temple belonging to 3200-3500s, more than two thousand stamp print and quality metal works were found. The captured data indicate that at that time Arslantepe was the official, religious and cultural center where the aristocracy was born and the first state form emerged. In 2000 BC, Arslantepe was used as the city of Melitia-Meliddu of the Hittite Empire, which expanded into the Euphrates River. This settlement was used as a Late Hittite city surrounded by earth walls and similar to the Central Anatolian Hittite cities with its city gate and courtyard opened on the north-eastern slope of the hill. B.C. Arslanepe, who continued to exist as a settlement until the Assyrian invasion from the 5th century BC to 712 BC, was later separated for a while.
Excavations at Arslantepe Dr. It is being continued by the Italian Excavation Board under the chairmanship of Marcella Frangipane. Finds are exhibited in Malatya Museum. In addition, the project of the mudbrick palace complex belonging to the Late Uruk Period was turned into an Open Air Museum. With the realization of this project, Arslantepe's contributions to tourism in the province will increase in a positive direction.