Culture minister says Hattusa Sphinx handed over to Turkey

ISTANBUL (A.A) - July 27, 2011 - Turkey's culture and tourism minister said on Wednesday that Hattusa Sphinx was handed over to Turkey on Tuesday.
"Hattusa Sphinx has been brought back to our territory. An artifact, belonging to the Anatolian soil for more than 3,000 years, has been brought back to our territory after 95 years," Ertugrul Gunay told reporters.
"Today is a historic day. The Sphinx will be sent to Hattusa after being rehabilitated in Istanbul," Gunay said.
Some 3,500 years ago, the magnificent city of Hattusa, capital of the Hittite Empire, was one of the Bronze Age's largest settlements. Based in the heart of Anatolia, and then swallowed up by the earth for millennia, it was rediscovered in the 19th century.     
German archaeologists began to unearth the site in 1906.