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Bogazkale & Hittite Cities...
Before our own century very little was known about the Hittites, a people who commanded a vast empire in the Middle Fast, conquered Babylon, and challenged the Egypt of the pharnobs over 3000 vears ago. Fhough their accomplishments were monumental, time has buried Hittite history as effectively as it has buried the Hittites themselves. Only a few references to them, in the Bible and in Egyptian chronicles, remain. In 1905 excavations began at the site of Hattutas, the Hittite capital near the Turkish village of Bogazkale (also called Bogazkoy), 200 km east of Ankara off the highway to Samsun. The digging produced notable works of art, most of which are now preserved in Ankara's Museum of Anatolian Civilisations; also brought to light were the Hittite state archives, written in cuneiform twedge-shaped characters) on thousands of clay tablets. From these tablets, historians and archaeologists were able to construct a history of the Hittite Empire. The Hittites spoke an Indo-European language. They swept into Anatolia around 2000 BC and conquered the Hatti, from whom they borrowed both their culture and their name. They established themselves here at Hattusas, the Hatti capital, and in the course of a millennium enlarged and beautified the city. From about 1375 BC to 1200 BC, this was the great and glorious capital of the Hittite Empire. Most of the Hittite artefacts are now in Ankara's museum, though there is also a small museum in Bogazkale, open from 8am to 12 noon and from 1:30 to 5:30 pm. Coming from Sungurlu, you arrive in Bogazkale, which has several hotels, camping grounds and restaurants, a teahouse and a few shops. It's a small farming village with a sideline in tourism. From the welcoming arch over the road at the entrance to the village, it's 100 metres up the street to the museum. Across the street from the museum is the "Ilce Saglik Ocagi" (county clinic), the primary school and the grammar school. If you are coming from Yozgat, you follow a road which comes over the mountains from the south-east and skirts the eastern part of the archaeological zone. The view of the ruined city from this road is very fine. South of the village, up on the hillside, sprawl the extensive ruins of Hattusas. It's exactly one km from the welcome arch to the ticket kiosk, and another 2.5 km up the hillside to the farthest point, the Sphinx Gate (or Yerkapi) along the road which loops through the ruins. The separate site of Yazilikaya is about 3 km uphill from the ticket kiosk along another road.

Hattusas...

This was once a great and very impressive city, well defended by stone walls over six km in length. Today the ruins consist mostly of reconstructed foundations, walls and a few rock carvings, but there are several more interesting features, including a tunnel. The site itself is strange, almost eerie, exciting for its ruggedness and high antiquity rather than for its extant buildings or reliefs.

The road looping around the entire site of Hattusas (not including Yazilikaya) is five km long, from the ticket kiosk all the way around and back. The walk itself takes at least an hour, plus time spent exploring the ruins, so figure about three hours or so to see the site. You might want to take some water with you, and start early in the day before the sun is too hot. I'll describe the loop going anti-clockwise.

The first site you come to, 300 metres up from the ticket kiosk, is the Büyük Mabed or the Great Temple of the Storm God, a vast complex that's almost a town in itself, with its own water and drainage systems, storerooms and ritual altars. It dates from the 14th century BC; it seems to have been destroyed around 1200 BC.

About 350 metres past the Great Temple, the road forks; take the right fork and follow the winding road up the hillside. On your left in the midst of the old city are several temples and inscriptions, including the Nisantas, arock with a long but severely weathered Hittite inscription in it; the Sarikale, which may be a Phrygian fort on Hittite foundations; and the Yenicekale, where Hittite engineers transformed the very uneven site into a flat plain on which to build their structures.

From the fork in the road it's about one km uphill to the Aslanlikapi or Lion Gate which has two stone lions (copies of the originals, which are now in Ankara) defending the city against all comers. The city's defensive walls have been restored along the ridge, and this allows you to appreciate the scope of the construction effort thattook place almost 4000 years ago.

Continue another 700 metres up to the top of the hill and the Yerkapi or Earth Gate, once defended by two great sphinxes, now domesticated in the museums of Istanbul and Berlin. The most interesting feature here is the long, 70-metre tunnel running beneath the wails to a postem on the southern side of the hill. As the true arch was not discovered until much later, the Hittites used a corbelled arch, two flat faces of stones leaning toward one another. Primitive or not, the arch has done its job for millennia, and you can still pass down the tunnel as Hittite soldiers did, emerging from the postern. Your reward is a WC, off to the left at the base of the slope. Climb back up to the Sphinx Gate by either of the monumental stairways placed on either side of the wide stone glacisheneath the walls. Once back up top, enjoy the wonderful view from this highest point, sweeping down over Hattusas, Bogazkale and beyond.

Another 600 metres eastward down the slope brings you to the Kralkapi or King's Gate, named after the regal-looking figure in the relief carving; the one you see is a copy, as the original was removed to safekeeping in the Ankara museum. Actually, the figure is not a king at all, but the Hittite war god.

The ruins of the Büyük Kale or Great Fortress are 600 metres downhill from the Kralkapi. This elaborate fortress also held the royal palace and the Hittite state archives. The archives, discovered in 1906, contained a treaty between the Hittite monarch, Hattusili III, and Ramses II, Pharaoh of Egypt, written on a clay tablet in cuneiform. From the fortress it's just over one km back to the ticket kiosk.

Yazilikaya...

The Turkish name means "inscribed rock", and that's what you find at this site just under three km from Bogazkale. Follow the signs from the ticket kiosk. The road circles a hillock called Ambarli Kaya, atop which there were more Hittite buildings, before crossing a stream and climbing the hill past the Baskent restaurant, pension and camping ground (you might want to stop here for refreshments or lunch).

Yazilikaya was always a naturalistic religious sanctuary open to the sky, but in the later Hittite times (13th century BC) monumental gateways and temple structures were built in front of the natural rock galleries. It is the foundations of these late structures that you see as you approach Yazilikaya from the car park.

There are two natural rock galleries, the larger one to the left, which was the empire's sacred place, and a narrower one to the right, which was the burial place of the royal family. In the large gallery, the low reliefs of numerous conehead gods and goddesses marching in procession indicate that this was the Hittite's holiest religious sanctuary. The Hittites had 1000 gods, but fewer than 100 are represented here. The most important Hittite deities were Teshub, the Storm God, and Hepatu, the Sun Goddess, which pretty much covered the bases back in 1200 BC.

Alacahöyük...

There is less to see at Alacahöyük, but Hittiteophiles will want to make the trip to the site, 25 km north of Bogazkale. As at the other Hittite sites, movable monuments have been taken to the museum in Ankara, though there is a small museum on the site and a few worn sphinxes, and good has-reliefs have been left in place. This is a very old site, settled from about 4000 BC.

To get there, leave Bogazkale heading north-west on the Sungurlu road, and after 14 km turn right at the road marked for Alaca and Alacahöyük. (Coming from Sungurlu, turn left about 11 km after turning onto the Bogazkale road.) Go another 13 km and turn left for Alacahoyük, nine more km along. As of this writing there is no dolmus service. The villagers told me they preferred to get rides with trucks, as the truck drivers charge less than the minibus drivers. Thus you will have to do the same, or hire a taxi or minibus to take you to the ruins and back. (You should be able to get dolmuses as far as the town of Alaca, 18 km from Alacahöyük; from there you must hitch rides.)

Alacahöyük is now a farming hamlet with a humble main square on which stands a fountain, a PTT, a souvenir shop, a bakery and a modest grocery. The Kaplan Restaurant & Hotel, basically a spartan pension, was not open when I was last in town, though it may re-open if demand warrants. The little museum is right by the ruins, and both are open from 8:30 am to 12 noon, and from 1:30 to 5:30 pm, closed Monday; as this is a small village operation, you may even be able to beg your way in on Monday. Admission fee for everything is US$ 0.50.

In the tidy little museum you can inspect tools used in the excavations, and finds from the Chalcolithic and Old Bronze ages. A handy ant farm-style glass case shows the stratigraphy of Alacahöyük's 15 layers of history :

  • 1 Phrygian Age (1200 - 600 BC)
  • 2 to 4 Old Hittite and Great Hittite, Empire Age (2000 - 1200 BC)
  • 5 to 9 Old Bronze Age (3000 - 2000 BC)
  • 10 to 15 Chalcolithic Age (5500 - 3000 BC)

The exhibits are not labelled except by period; I have included a table to help you translate. Note also the "Hitit Cagi Banyo Teknesi", a Hittite-Age bathtub ! Downstairs in the museum is its ethnographic section, which many people fmd more absorbing than the ancient potshards.

At the ruins, signs are in Turkish and English. The site is self-explanatory. The monumental gate is what you've come to see, with its lions guarding the door and its very fme reliefs down in front. The reliefs show Storm God worship ceremonies and festivals, with musicians, acrobats, priests and the Hittite king and queen. Off to the left across the fields is a secret escape tunnel leading to a postem as at Hattusas.

Leaving Alacahöyük, signs for Sungurlu lead you seven km out to the Sungurlu to Corum highway by a road not shown on many maps; turn left (south-west) for Sungurlu (27 km), right for Corum (42 km) and Samsun (210 km).

Still interested in Hittites ? You can visit the very earliest Hittite capital at Kültepe, near Kayseri in Cappadocia, but there is much less to see there. Karatepe, east of Adana, is worth a visit, though.