Explore Ancient Anatolia

Romans vs. Ottomans , originally uploaded by voyageAnatolia.blogspot.com . Medieval Corner: Roman defense wall against Seljuq minaret and kümbet, classic Turkish architecture in Antalya citadel.

Hadrian's Gate, Antalya , originally uploaded by voyageAnatolia.blogspot.com . The Hadrian's Gate, Hadrianus Gate or Üçkapılar, meaning the Three Gates in Turkish, is a triumphal arch which was built in the name of the Roman emperor Hadrian, who visited Antalya in 130 A.D. It has three arched gates. According to the legend, Sultan Belkis, the Queen of Sheba, is said to have passed under those gates and enjoyed a happy day in the palace in Aspendos on her way to visit King Solomon.

Letter from thousands of years ago: Hittite cuneiform is the implementation of cuneiform script used in writing the Hittite language. The surviving corpus of Hittite texts is preserved in cuneiform on clay tablets dates to the 2nd millennium BC (roughly spanning the 17th to 12th centuries).

Amphorae , originally uploaded by voyageAnatolia . Amphorae first appeared on the Syrian coast around the 15th century BC and spread around the ancient world, being used by the ancient Greeks and Romans as the principal means for transporting and storing grapes, olive oil, wine, oil, olives, grain, fish, and other commodities. They were produced on an industrial scale from Greek times and used around the Mediterranean until about the 7th century. Wooden and skin containers seem to have supplanted amphorae thereafter.

Dusk at Lake Uluabat Bursa , originally uploaded by voyageAnatolia . Dusk at ancient Lake Apolloniatis at ancient Apollonia ad Rhyndacum, Gölyazı, Bursa.

Trojan Horse , originally uploaded by voyageAnatolia . The Trojan Horse was a tale from the Trojan War, as told in Virgil's Latin epic poem The Aeneid. The events in this story from the Bronze Age took place after Homer's Iliad, and before Homer's Odyssey. It was the stratagem that allowed the Greeks finally to enter the city of Troy and end the conflict. In the best-known version, after a fruitless 10-year siege of Troy the Greeks built a huge figure of a horse inside which a select force of men hid. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the Horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the Horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greek army entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war.

Gate of Centuries , originally uploaded by voyageAnatolia . Gate of Amasra Amasra derives its name from Amastris, niece of the last Persian king Darius III. She married Dionysius, tyrant of Heraclea. She combined four Ionian colonies, Sesamus, Cytorus, Cromna, also mentioned in the Iliad, and Tium. Tium, says Strabo, soon detached itself from the community, but the rest kept together, and Sesamus was the acropolis of Amastris. Amastris was a confederation or union of three places. The territory of Amastris produced a great quantity of boxwood, which grew on Mount Cytorus.