Hattusas - Small chamber

The most recent research suggests that the small chamber served both as a funerary temple and, after his death, as a shrine to King Tuthaliya IV. Guarded by a pair of winged demons with lions' heads, the 18m/59ft-long side chamber, varying in width between 2.5 and 4m/8 and 13ft, is entered via a slightly raised passageway leading through a cleft in the rock. The impression conveyed is of entering a narrow gallery, its smooth walls carved with four separate and thematically unconnected reliefs. Immediately inside, near a curve in the east wall, is a repeat of the Tuthaliya IV cartouche from the main chamber. This is followed by the so-called "sword god", a relief of a great sword with a human head for the pommel and four lions for the hilt (possibly based on Nergal, the Mesopotamian god of the underworld).

On the wall opposite are "the Twelve Gods", a simple frieze of stereotyped male divinities similar to those of the processional relief in the large chamber.