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The study of ancient civilizations is often obscure, and the appreciation of the achievements of those who are represented by us today only they have left behind is often difficult, requiring considerable imagination, even by professional archaeologists, much less the average tourist. A visit to the site of the ancient Hittite capital Hattusa (also spelled Hattusas or Hattusha), however, with its ruined temples and palaces, monumental sculptures and the 6.5 km long circuit of walls built heavily can not stop leave one with the conviction that this city was the birthplace and home of an imperial people. The site is located in the town of Bogazkale (formerly Bogazkoy), established over a terrace and a large rock that rises above the area. Bogazkale Sungurlu is near, northeast of Ankara at a distance of 180 kilometers. Turn right onto the new road just past Corum Sungurlu to get there.

Hattusa History
The ancient Hittite capital extends over, and spills into a deep gorge and rock, looking north on a broad cultivated valley. The knowledge we have about the Hittites has come almost exclusively from written records found in Bogazkale. We know these texts, that in the middle of the second millennium BC, the political and social structure of these people had developed around the person of the king of the Hittites in Bogazkale, and there was administrative in society, religious and military groups. The capital was named the Hattus Hattusa, the name given to the area by the Hatti people who lived there when the Hittites moved in. From the earliest record found in Hittite archives, we know that Hattusa was devastated in the beginning of the century 18 BC by the forces of Kussara Anitta. It is believed that was the largest of the Hittite kings during the time of the city-state. The same document indicates that Anitta put a curse on the city in the sense that “He who shall be king after me, if your resettlement in Hattusa will be beaten by the storm god.” The Hittite people actually return to their capital after the death of Anitta. The entire city has taken on aspects of the Hittite civilization to 1700 BC C.

Main Hittite sites:

• Hattusa (Bogazkale)
• Yazilikaya
• Alacahoyuk
• Kultepe (Kanesh)

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Hattusa was the capital of the Hittites, both during the Old Kingdom, which lasted from 1750 to 1450 BC and the period of the Empire, from 1450 to 1180 a. C. I Hantili King is believed to have been responsible for the fortification of the city in early 16 century BC. Kaska people were able to break through this wall of the city early, however, dismiss the capital for nearly a century later, during the reign of King Tudhaliyas III. The fortifications were rebuilt soon, and the city went through several periods of construction. The old city is the party that occupies the area between the Temple and the great citadel known as Bogazkale. The latest section, known as the upper town was built during the Imperial era. The oldest part of the capital is only 400 feet long, mounting to the high citadel. This was the seat of government, and the warehouse for thousands of tablets that make up the actual files, stores long after being partially destroyed by fire. During the imperial era, the former small town was greatly enlarged. In the reign of Suppiluliumas, an incredible string of fortifications was erected on the hill to the south, enclosing an area of over three hundred acres. This was during the 14 th century BC, and was a great feat of engineering skill. The foundations rose to a level based in part, faced with a sloping stone wall. The double wall above this, standing about thirty feet high, was built with big stones.

As many as five temples have been excavated in the capital in Bogazkale. We know relatively little about their religious beliefs, or ceremonies, but the clay tablets from the Hittite archives have revealed that religion was an institution regulated and more complex. We learned a lot of stone reliefs, statues, sutatuettes, vases molded relief, and funeral urns. The priests and priestesses to a sacred area of their own in which he carried out his administrative duties temples. Here there are small statues of gods and goddesses of precious metals and stones, and temples owned large estates in the storage areas that are most religious objects have been discovered. The duties of the high priest, were assumed by the Hittite king for special ceremonies and celebrations, and after the death of the sovereign, to be added to the already long list of Hittite gods. The king was cremated and buried with an elaborate ceremony, but no real tomb has been discovered to date.

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A new art form to the Hittites came into wide use during the period of the Empire, the monumental reliefs. We learned a lot about the religion of these people at the beginning of the study of the line of gods and goddesses carved into the walls of the sanctuary Yazilikaya. Reliefs and statues in the form of sphinxes, lions, gods and other ways to decorate the walls and gateways Bogazkale. Much of the work of the Hittite pottery belongs to the period of the Old Assyrian colony, which focused on the area of Kanesh. Besides this, the Hittites developed their own style of pottery he said. There are many examples of vessels decorated with painted figures in relief frieze arranged in horizontal bands, separated by rows of geometric decoration found. These vases and pieces represent scenes of Hittite religion, including special ceremony.

The Hittites were skilled in working with different materials, and examples have been unearthed in Hattusa. Among the findings, are statues of gods and goddesses in ivory, stone, bronze and gold. The style is very similar to that of the reliefs in the capital. And cylinder seals also follow the lines of this art with words and the hieroglyphic signs that make up the decorative effect.

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Troy, Troy wars images, Çanakkale, Horse Of Troy, Truva

Troy is a city which existed over 4.000 years and known as the center of ancient civilizations. For several years people thought that it was the city mentioned only in the tales and never existed until it was initially based in the 19th century.

Troy (Truva in Turkish) is located in Hisarlik near Canakkale province where the remains of this once-great city can be visited.What was left are the remains of the destruction of Schliemann, the famous German archaeologist or a treasure hunter as some people call him.

Today, an foreign team of German and American archaeologists bring the Troy of the Bronze Age back to life under a sponsored project by Daimler – Benz, and another Turkish team is at law wars with Russia and Germany to get back the stolen Trojan treasures.

Troy appeared in Greek and Latin literature. Homer first mentioned story of Troy in Iliad and Odyssey. Later, it became the most popular subject in Greek drama. The book of Virgil’s Aeneid contains the best known account of the sack of Troy. In addition, there are untrue stories under the names of Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygius.

In the Bronze age, Troy had a great power because of its strategic location between Europe and Asia. In the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC Troy was a cultural center. After the Trojan War, the city was abandoned from 1100 to 700 BC. About 700 BC Greek settlers began to occupy the Troas region, Troy was resettled and named as Ilion. Alexander the Great ruled the area around the 4th century BC.

After Romans captured Troy in 85 BC, it was restored partially by Roman general Sulla and named as New Ilium. Through the Byzantine rule, Troy lost its importance.

The ruins of Troy were first found by Charles McLaren in 1822. The German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated Troy from 1870 to 1890. His theft of treasure from Troy and his damage to the site will be always remembered in Turkish archaeological history. Wilhelm Dorpfeld followed to excavate Troy after Schliemann. Today, a new German team ‘s still working to rebuild Troy ruins by using new advanced technologies since 1988.

There are nine levels at Troy; Troy I to V relates roughly with early Bronze Age (3000 to 1900 BC). Its inhabitants were known as Trojans in this period. Troy VI and VII were built in the Middle and Late Bronze Age. Troy VIII to IX belongs to Hellenistic and Roman Ilion (Latin Ilium). Troy was destroyed many times and rebuilt each time.

Troy is one of the most famous cities in the history, remembering us Hector, Achilles and Achaean Greeks, the sake of Helen, Paris, Agamemnon and Priam. Its story is written in every language, Trojan heroes, Achilles’ heel and Odyssey became figures in poems. From Alexander the Great to Lord Byron, many important figures of the history stood on the site of the great heroes. However, people always wondered whether the Trojan War happened or not, or if there was really a wooden horse or not.

Trojan War

The tale of Troy is told by Homer with the Iliad and the Odyssey. Homer was drawing on a vast cycle of stories about Trojan War. The Iliad features a few weeks in the tenth year of the war.

Reported by Greek sources, Troy stood near the Dardanelles. There was clearly no dispute about its location in the story that we are all familiar: the Dardanelles, the islands of Imbros, Samothrace and little Tenedos, Mount Ida to the south east, the plain and the river Scamander.

It was an ancient city an its inhabitants were known as Teucrians or Dardanians but also as Trojans or Ilians which got this name from eponymous heroes, Tros and his uncle Ilus. In other source mentioned that Troy and Ilius were two separate places but Homer insists on using these two names for Troy.

On the mainland of Greece at that time, the most powerful king was Agamemnon. His residence was at Mycenae. At that time, the inhabitants of Greece called themselves as Arhaians, Danaans, or Argiues not Greeks or Hellenes. Agamemnon married Clytemnestra, daughter of Tyndareus of Sparta and sister to Helen. Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world, she had married with Agamemnon’s brother Menelaos who became king in Lakonia. Two brothers had a great power in southern Greece.

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On the other hand, in Troy Laemedon was the king of Ilios, the son of Ilus who had given his name to Troy. Laemedon tried to cheat the gods of their rewards. He would not give up the immortal snow – white horses sent by Herakles (Hercules). But Herakles sailed to the Troad (Troy), attacked, and captured the city.

Laemedon and his sons were killed except the youngest, Podarces, who was released and took a new name, Priam, as a young king of Troy and the city was restored again.

Priam ruled over Troy successfully for three generations. He had fifty sons and twelve daughters. His eldest son was the great warrior Hector. And one of his sons, Paris, was the important figure in Troy’s History.

The famous myth tells; Eris -strife- had thrown down a golden apple ‘for the fairest’ at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and Zeus couldn’t decide between his wife Hera, Athena (goddess of wisdom), and Aphrodite (goddess of love). The goddesses were led to the Trojan Mount Ida where Priam’s most handsome son Paris lived. Hera offered him the lordship of all Asia; Athena the victory in war and wisdom beyond any other man; Aphrodite the most beautiful woman in the world. As usual, men being men, stories being stories, Paris gave the apple to Helen.

Paris went to Sparta to give the apple to Helen. Menelaus, husband of Helen, arranged a feast for him. When Menelaus left there to visit the king of Knossos, Helen and Paris ran away and sailed to Troy. But there is some contradiction in this part, some source says that Paris carried of Helen by force and plundered elsewhere in the Aegean sea before time for Troy.

When Menelaus heard how it happened, he begged his brother Agamemnon to take revenge. The king sent envoys to Troy to demand Helen’s restitution but envoys came back with empty hands. Then Menelaus gathered an army. In the story, great heroes were Achilles, Odysseus (Ulysses) and Ajax. At Aulis, the army seers read the signs that Troy would fall in the tenth year of the war.

Then Menelaus army sailed to Asia Minor and attacked Teuthrania in Mysia opposite of Lesbos, but they had mistaken depending on Trojan territory and the army were beaten at the mouth of the Caicus river and driven back to their ship by Telephus, king of Mysia and ally of Troy.

The Greeks assembled again at Aulis but they were wind bound and unable to sail. Wings, hunger, evil harborage, crazing men, routing ships and cables stopped the Greek army, because Agamemnon had offended Artemis and his most beautiful daughter had to be sacrificed to change the fortune.

After the sacrification of Iphigenia, the army reached first Lesbos, then Tenedos which is an island visible from Troy. The islands were plundered. At the end, Greek army was at the bay of Troy. The Trojans also had allies from several places in Asia Minor and Thrace. The war took 10 years. In the tenth year of the war, the Greeks stopped raiding Asia Minor and attacked Troy. In a part of Homer’s Iliad, Hector falls in a single combat with Achilles, the best Greek warrior, because he killed Patroclus, Achilles’ best friend. The fight ended with the death of Hector.

Achilles sacrificed twelve noble Trojan captives over Hector’s funeral. After the death of Trojan ally Memnon in a battle at the Scaeon gate, Paris hit Achilles in his heel (the famous ‘Achilles heel’ comes from here), the only place where Achilles was vulnerable. And the greatest of all Greek heroes was burned and his ashes buried on a hill overlooking the Hellespont. Ajax committed suicide with the silver sword which had been given to him by Hector as a mark of respect. Somehow Priam’s son Paris was killed by Philoktetes, but the Trojans still refused to give Helen up.

The Greeks had a plan; they built a wooden horse in order to get access to the city. Well armed men, among them Odysseus of Ithaca and Menelaus, were hidden in it. The horse was left as a thank to Athena and the Greeks burned their camps and sailed as if they had given up.

Trojans found the horse and pulled the horse into the city. At midnight, Greek soldiers jumped down from horse and opened the gates by killing the guards. The Greeks entered into the city and killed all Trojans. After the Greek massacre, none of the males were left alive in the city. Neoptolemus killed old Priam on the threshold of his royal house. The male children of Trojan heroes were slaughtered, Hectors little boy was thrown from the walls. Menelaus decided to kill Helen but in front of her beauty he gave up. After plundering and burning the city, the Greeks left Troy.

But this victory brought only more suffering to the Greeks. They were split up by storms and lost their way to return. Agamemnon, the king of Greeks was killed by his wife. Philoktetos was expelled from Thessaly by rebels.

Another Article about Trojan Wars

Other important sites in the regions near here:

Pergamum -Pergamom – Bergama

Ephesus

Dydma

Hierapolis – Pamukkale

Underwater City of Neopolis

Aphrodisias Temple of Aphrodite

Hattusa – Hattusas

Ancient Greek Theatre of Myra

Bodrum Castle and Underwater Museum

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