An artificial bank, 15 meters high, 250 meters wide, and 80 wide at the base forms the Southern end of the 13th century BC fortifications. In the middle this part of the city wall is interrupted by the Sphinxes Gate. Right beneath the gate is a postern, a 70 meters long tunnel, built before the bank was heaped on top of it (Yer Kapi means “door in the ground”). The banks function was probably representative rather than protective.

The Spinxes Gate was not flanked by towers (as for instance the similar gate at Alacahöyük was, see ), but leads through a tower. The better preserved sphinxes on the city-side were damaged by fire in ancient times, and in 1907 taken away for restoration, never to return. They are in Istanbul and Berlin.