Kultepe Sadarak

Kultepe Sadarak is a five-acre Chalcolithic mound on the plain east of Karaagaç village, about three kilometres from Sadarak town. Excavations have revealed multiple occupation layers going back to the late Palaeolithic, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in the Nakhchivan region. The finds include chaff-faced pottery and tableware with red-painted lines characteristic of the fifth millennium BC, as well as later Proto Kura-Araxes black-burnished wares linking this site to the wider Bronze Age cultures of the Caucasus.

The mound itself is unimpressive to look at — a low grassy rise on the flatlands — but the depth of history beneath it is substantial. There is no visitor infrastructure at the site; it is of interest mainly to those with an existing curiosity about Caucasian prehistory. The Nakhchivan State Museum in the capital has the best collection of finds from Kultepe and nearby sites, and is the better starting point for understanding the region's archaeological significance.

things to do sight