Hattuşa
- Page I
Lion Gate
"On the Memory of the World List, the ancient capital of the
Hittites keeps company with famous cities such as Venice and Toledo, Damascus
and Jerusalem, Rome and Carthage, Lübeck
and Versailles, and Teotihuacan and Macchu Picchu." (J. Seeber Hattusha
Guide. A Day in the Hittite Capital, Ege Yayınları, Istanbul,
Turkey, 2002).
Before 1905 little was known about the Hittites, once the rulers over a vast
empire in the Middle East who conquered Babylon and, at the peak of their power,
challenged the Egyptians and Assyrians, more than 3000 years ago, for control
over the land of Israel. Although the Bible prominently makes over 40 references to the great Hittite
Empire and its importance is noted in Egyptian chronicles, no archaeological evidence had ever been found that it really did
exist. In 1834, Charles Texier stumbled on the ruins of the Hittite capital of
Hattusha, near the village of Boğazköy (present Boğazkale). In 1905
excavations started and uncovered the long lost capital of the Hittite
Empire, together with a pile of stone tablets that completely documented its
history.
The Hittites, who spoke an Indo-European language, swept into Anatolia around
2000 BC where they conquered the Hatti. From the Hatti they borrowed their
culture and name. They made Hattusha, the Hatti capital, theirs and
enlarged and beautified it. At the end of the second millennium BC, the Hittite empire disappeared under still unclear
circumstances, leaving behind it the remains of a powerful and intellectually
brilliant civilization. The destruction of the Hittite empire was so complete
that only the tiniest pieces of a large mosaic remained, erasing their
centuries-long rule over Asia Minor from the memory of man.
More information on Hattuşa can be found at the Hattusha
website and on the Hittite Empire at the All
About Turkey website.
Click on the thumbnails to get a greater picture
