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.
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