Yesemek, located within the borders of Yesemek Mahallesi (former Yesemek Village), approximately 25 km southeast of Islahiye town center in Gaziantep province, is the largest and oldest known quarry and sculpture workshop in the Ancient Near East. Sculpturing works are spread over a wide area along the western and northern sides of the hills known as Karatepe or Aslanlıtepe. The blocks extracted from the basaltic layers on the western side of the hill became sculptures such as the Gate Lion or the Sphinx on the northwest foothills. In 2018, 518 sculpture sketches and basaltic blocks were discovered in the examination and determination studies carried out by the Gaziantep Museum and Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality archaeologists. It is estimated that this number will increase much more with the excavations to be made.

    In the workshop, the majority of the sculptural works spread over an area of 11 hectares are lion and sphinx sculpture sketches. Among the remains in the area, besides the sculptures of lions and sphinxes, there are rock reliefs of a mountain god, a chariot, and a lion-man, as well as architectural elements consisting of orthostates, column socles, and basaltic blocks. It is known that the fine details of the sculptures consisting of incomplete sketches will be processed after they are moved to the structures where they will be placed. 

    Hundreds of sculptures and various architectural elements in the workshop, together with the natural environment it is in, witness a period of human history that is not yet well known enough, the stages and techniques of sculpture production. The sculptures, which are made up of rough sketches, would most likely be completed in the locations where they would be transported and in the structures where they would be installed.Yesemek, which has Outstanding Universal Value, is a very important representative and pioneer of ancient stone quarries and sculpture production areas. With these unique features, Yesemek was entitled to be included in the UNESCO Tentative List of World Heritage Sites in 2012, and efforts are underway for it to be included in the permanent list. 

    Yesemek was first discovered by the Austrian-born German researcher Felix von Luschan and his team, who conducted excavations in Zincirli Höyük (ancient Sam ‘al) at the end of the 19th century, and took place in literature as Gesemek on the map in the Zincirli excavation report published in 1893. In the second report of the Zincirli Höyük excavations, Yesemek was mentioned as Nurkhanli (Nurhanlı). Between 1957 and 1961, U. Bahadr Alkım of Istanbul University and his team conducted the first significant excavations in Yesemek, unearthing and examining partially underground sculptures, as well as making drawings, photographs, and inventory records. His works were published in short research reports between 1957 and 1964, and comprehensive results were shared with the scientific world in a book published by the Directorate of Turkish Historical Society in 1974. These studies and their results were later re-evaluated by Refik Duru.

    Archaeological excavations in Yesemek, which had been halted since 1961, were resumed in 1989 by lhan Temizsoy while serving as Director of the Gaziantep Museum, and these studies lasted until 1991. In Temizsoy's works, partially underground sculptures were excavated, while excursion paths and terrace arrangements were made for the display of the open-air museum.
Even though Yesemek has been a known center in the archaeological literature for about 130 years, it has not been adequately explored yet. According to the previous research, it is controversial whether the history of Yesemek dates back to the Hittite Imperial Age (1400-1200 BC) or the Late Hittite Principalities Period (10-8th centuries BC) and it is generally accepted that the workshop should be dated to the Late Hittite Period.  

    Since 2019, During the surface exploration under the directorate of Prof. Dr. Atilla Engin, together with Gaziantep University, Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality, Gaziantep Museum, and Yesemek Site Presidency, various architectural remains, sculptural works, and new stone quarries located on a 3.5 km long hill extending from the area where Yesemek Sculpture Workshop is located to Topallar Village within the borders of Kilis province and dating back to the Hittite Imperial Age were discovered. Architectural remains, new stone reliefs and stone hammers, discovered during the small-scale excavations and surveys in this hill settlement and the workshop area, which is understood to be related to the Yesemek Sculpture Workshop but were not completed, reveal that the sculpture workshop in Yesemek dates back to the 13th century BC. and the Northern Levant Corridor was established to equip monumental structures in an urban settlement with sculptural works. This new information has greatly increased the importance of Yesemek Sculpture Workshop.