Discovered in southeastern Turkey, north of the town Sanliurfa, is a hilltop santuary known as Göbekli Tepe. The santuary was erected on the hilltop by hunter-gatherers in the 10th millenium BC, and is thought to be the oldest human-made place of worship yet discovered. The discovery of the temple uncovered massive carved stones about 11,000 years old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who had not yet developed metal tools or even pottery. The oldest layer dates back to the Mesolithic period and the massive sequence of rock layers suggests that several millennia of activity has taken place.
A city in Turkey, near the Syrian border, it was occupied from the start of the second millennium BC to 1200 BC. It is most famous for the palace of Yarim-Lim which dates to ca. 18th century BC.
Yarim-Lim was a king of Yamkhad (also known as Aleppo). In the late 17th century the city was attacked and destroyed by the Hittite king Hattusili I. Less than a century later it appears to have been rebuilt and falls under the control of the kingdom of Mittani.
A written record tells the story of Idrimi. According to his biography he fled his hometown, Aleppo, for some unknown reason. He went to the city of Emar. Unhappy there he went to the countryside where he became a leading warrior. Eventually the king of Mittani, Parrattarna, grants him rule over Alalakh.
In the 14th century the Hittites under King Suppiluliuma returned, conquering Alalakh and incorporating it into their empire. It remained part of the Hittite empire until 1200 BC, when it was either abandoned or destroyed. It is sometimes reported that the Sea People destroyed it - however this has not been confirmed.
Tayinat was an ancient settlement in southeast Turkey which is near the modern-day Syrian border.
The earliest settlement at the site goes back to 3,000 BC. Little is known of this early site except that it was abandoned around 2000 BC, and a new settlement was created nearby that is known as Alalakh.
Around 1200 BC civilization collapsed throughout the Mediterranean world – including the Hittites, Mycenaean and Egyptians. Alalakh was abandoned and the site of Tayinat was re-inhabited.
Recent archaeological work, led by University of Toronto Professor Tim Harrison, has shown that the people who settled Tayinat appear to be from the Aegean. The pottery bears a striking resemblance to those used by the Mycenaean people. They have also found Aegean style loom weights and cypro-Minoan writing.
Harrison and historian John Hawkins, have put forward the idea that Tayinat was capital of a kingdom known as Palastin or Walastin. Such a kingdom is mentioned on a number of Luwian inscriptions.
In 738 BC the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III conquered Tayinat and turned it into a provincial capital. Archaeologists have recently found a cache of Assyrian tablets in a temple which date from this time.
Tayinat was either abandoned or destroyed at some point in the 7th or 6th century BC. If it was destroyed, it is not known by whom.
Hattusa was the capital of the Hittite empire in the late Bronze Age. It was situated in rich agricultural land near the modern city of Boğazkale, and founded around the sixth millenium BC. It was king Hattusili I who made it the capital of the fledgling Hittite empire in 1586 BC.
The city and the empire's peak was in the 14th century BC, when the city covered 1.8 km² with inner and outer sections, either side of a great wall (which still stands in part today) built during the reign of Suppiluliuma I. Modern estimates put the population of the city at between 40,000 and 50,000 during this period.
Rhodiapolis, also known as Rhodia, or Rhodiopolis, is an ancient Hellenistic setttlement on the southern Anatolian coast. It is now situated in the quiet district of Kumluca, a suburb of Antalya, Turkey. Its history remains largely a mystery, though excavations in the area have revealed the remains of an aqueduct, a small theatre, sarcophagi, churches and a temple of Escalapius. Recently, work carried out by the University of Akdeniz has made several intriguing discoveries in the city, including a large stone tablet which details Rhodiapolis' inhabitants' annoyance at exorbitant taxes at the hands of Roman Emperor Septimius Severus around 300 AD. The city was also a Catholic titular see; a suffragan (subordinate) of Myra, modern-day Demre. However, the only known bishop to have served in the area was a certain Nicholas, present in 518 AD. Today the site is rarely visited among the other classical treasures of the Turkish coast.
Halicarnassus, an ancient Greek city in the modern-day town of Bodrum, Turkey, is probably best known for its famous mausolseum, which stood in such splendour following its inception in the 4th century BC that it became known as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. However there was much more to this beautiful trade town than a crypt. Throughout its early history it became one of the most significant strongholds in southern Anatolia - and at one point or another fell under the durisdiction of Greeks, Persians, Macedonians and Romans.
The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was built between 353 and 350 BC at Halicarnassus (present Bodrum, Turkey), initially as a spectacular tomb for Mausolus at the behest of the broken-hearted Artemisia (incestuous marriages were the custom in Caria for rulers), who was herself laid to rest there only two years later. It stood approximately 45 meters in height. Each of the four sides were adorned with sculptural reliefs created by each one of four Greek sculptors — Leiochares, Bryaxis, Scopas of Paros and Timotheus.
The finished structure was considered so grand that Antipater of Sidon identified it as one of his Seven Wonders of the World. The word ‘mausoleum’ has since become a generic name for any grand tomb.
Today, the massive castle of the Knights of Malta stands in Bodrum, featuring polished stone and marble blocks of the original Mausoleum built into its walls. Some of its surviving sculptures can be seen at the British Museum in London.
The Temple of Artemis was a Greek temple dedicated to Artemis – one of the oldest and most widely venerated ancient Greek deities. It was one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. Only foundations and sculptural fragments of the temple remain today. Evidence suggests there were various previous temples built on the site, but the so-called “new temple”, built in 550 BC is the most famous.
Antipater of Sidon, who compiled the list of the Seven Wonders, wrote of the temple: ‘I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the hanging gardens, and the colossus of the Sun, and the huge labour of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, “Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand”.’
Herostratus – the young man who burned the temple down – committed his act of arson, according to legend, so as to achieve fame at any cost, giving rise to the term “herostratic fame”.
Knidos, or Cnidus, is an ancient Greek city which is now located on Turkey's Datca peninsula, near the popular tourist spot of Tekir. From the 6th century BC onwards it became a vital strategic military and trading post at the edge of the Mediterranean, thanks to its vantage point at the summit of a cliff directly overlooking the sea. The city was already a prominent place by the time the Athenian general Conon defeated the belligerent Spartan fleet at the Battle of Cnidus in 394 BC, and it soon had an odeon, temples and was the focal point for a Venus sex cult. However the city is most famed for its illustrious marbles, most notably Praxiteles' statue of Aphrodite, now lost yet recreated in the British Museum, and the famous Lion of Knidos which now takes pride of place in the BM's Great Hall.
Knidos remained a strategic stronghold throughout the ancient Greek empire, yet switched allegiance to the Romans upon their defeat of Antiochus I Soter. It later became a Byzantine highlight, characterised by a large number of dwellings from the time. It became a point of western interest via the Dilettante Society of 1812, and was first excavated under C. T. Newton in 1857-58.
Zincirli is a popular archaeological excavation site located in south-central Turkey. The site is associated with ancient Samal, a late Hittite city-state that perpetuated Anatolian culture after the downfall of the Hittite empire, circa 1190 BC.
The main site at Zincirli reveals several palaces in bit hilani architectural style behind a walled citadel. The city surrounded this citadel, which itself was surrounded by a fortification wall.
