Largest tumulus

The largest tumulus (i.e., artificial mound created to house a burial chamber) is the Tumulus of Alyattes located at Bin Tepe on the shore of Lake Marmara (historically Lake Gyges) in Manisa Province, western Türkiye – an area known in ancient times as Lydia. The mound stands 63 m (207 ft) tall, 355 m (1,165 ft) in diameter and is constructed from some 785,000 m3 (27.7 million cu ft) of soil and stone; it's been estimated that it took more than 2,000 labourers around two and a half years to complete with construction starting c. 560 BCE. It is the final resting place of Mermnad King Alyattes, who reigned c. 610–560 BCE.

Dating back to around 600 BCE, “Bin Tepe” translates as “Thousand Hills”; while this number is slight hyperbole, the vast royal burial ground is still home to around 115 tumuli (and probably as many as 150 at its peak), which makes it one of the greatest concentrations of large-scale tumuli on the planet. (Reclaiming land for agriculture over the centuries is the cause of the decrease in tumuli over time.) The entire site covers an area of approximately 75 km2 (29 sq mi), also making it one of the largest graveyards on Earth.

Even the second-biggest tumulus at Bin Tepe – Koca Mutaf Tepe – stands 53 m (174 ft) tall, with a base diameter of 230 m (755 ft) and covers an area akin to that of the Great Pyramid of Khufu in Giza, Egypt, the world’s tallest pyramid.

Bin Tepe was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2025.

Another example of a suspected giant tumulus (although the tomb has yet to be found) is also situated in Türkiye. A 50-m-tall (197-ft) mound of stone chips, with a diameter of 145 m (475 ft), was built as a memorial to the Seleucid King Antiochus I of Commagene c. 62 BCE, and stands atop the summit of Nemrut Daği (2,306 m; 7,565 ft), south-east of Malatya.