Explore Ancient Anatolia

A Hittite-era dam located in the central Anatolian province of Çorum and believed to be one of the oldest in the world to have survived to date has been restored and is once again serving as a source of irrigation for local residents. The dam, located at the Alacahöyük archaeological site, was built by the Hittites in 1240 B.C.

The Leleges were one of the aboriginal peoples of Greece, the Aegean Sea and southwest Anatolia, who were already to be found there when the Indo-European Hellenes arrived.

The Chora Church (Turkish Kariye Müzesi, Kariye Camii, or Kariye Kilisesi — the Chora Museum, Mosque or Church) is considered to be one of the most beautiful examples of a Byzantine church. The church is situated in the western, Edirnekapı district of Istanbul. In the 16th century, the church was converted into a mosque by the Ottoman rulers, and it became a secularised museum in 1948. The interior of the building is covered with fine mosaics and frescoes.

Ephesus (Greek: Έφεσος, Turkish: Efes) was one of the great cities of the Ionian Greeks in Asia Minor, located in Lydia where the Cayster river flows into the Aegean Sea (in modern day Turkey). It was founded by colonists principally from Athens. The ruins of Ephesus are a major tourist attraction, especially for people travelling to Turkey by cruise ship via the port of Kuşadası.

Bodrum (in Greek, Αλικαρνασσός, formerly Budrum, previously Petronium, originally Halicarnassus) is a Turkish port in Muğla Province. It is on the Bodrum Peninsula, near the northwest entrance to the Gulf of Gökova, and faces the Greek island of Kos. Today, it is a center of tourism and yachting. It is the ancient Halicarnassus of Caria, renowned for the Mausoleum.

Halicarnassus (Ἁλικαρνασσός; modern Bodrum; see also List of traditional Greek place names), an ancient Greek city on the southwest coast of Caria, Asia Minor, on a picturesque, advantageous site on the Ceramic Gulf (Gulf of Cos, Gulf of Gökova). It originally occupied only the small island of Zephyria close to the shore, now occupied by the great castle of St. Peter, built by the Knights of Rhodes in 1404; but in course of time this island was united to the mainland and the city extended so as to incorporate Salmacis, an older town of the Leleges and Carians.

Caria was a region of the Asia Minor situated south of Ionia and west of Phrygia and Lycia. The eponymous inhabitants were known as Carians, and came to Caria before the Greeks. The land was originally called "Phoenicia", because a Phoenician colony settled there in early times. Afterwards it received the name Caria from Kar, a legendary king of the Carians. Independent Caria arose as a "Neo-Hittite" kingdom around the 11th century BC, and was incorporated into the Persian Achaemenid empire as the satrapy in 545 BC. The most important town was Halicarnassus, from where its sovereigns reigned. Other major towns were Heraclea, Antiochia, Myndus, Laodicea, Alinda and Alabanda. The Iliad records that at the time of the Trojan War, the city of Miletus belonged to the Carians, and was allied to the Trojan cause.

Lycia (Lycian: Trmmisa) is a region in the modern day Antalya Province on the southern coast of Turkey. It was the site of an ancient country and province of the Roman Empire.

New site to reveal information about nomadic life ANKARA - Turkish Daily News Wednesday, August 30, 2006 New settlement discovered in Konya dating back 11,000 years. An excavation team led by British archeologist Douglas Baird has found a settlement occupied by a nomadic tribe 11,000 years ago in the Karatay district of Konya. The occupants of Boncuklu Höyük, or literally the “Beaded Mound,” are thought to be ancestors of the people of Çatalhöyük, a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement in southern Anatolia. The deepest layers of the mound are thought to date from around 7,500 BC. (To give a timescale, remember that Stonehenge, a Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument located near Amesbury in the English county of Wiltshire, about 8 miles north of Salisbury, was erected between 2500 BC and 2000 BC although the surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC.)

Çatalhöyük was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement in southern Anatolia, dating from around 7500 BCE for the lowest layers. It is perhaps the largest and most sophisticated Neolithic site yet uncovered.

In ancient geography, Cappadocia was an extensive inland district of Asia Minor (modern Turkey). In the time of Herodotus the Cappadocians occupied the whole region from Mount Taurus to the Euxine (Black Sea).

Ancient Roman Way unearthed at the Tarsus civic center. Paul of Tarsus, also known as Saul, Paulus, and Saint Paul the Apostle (AD 3–14 — 62–69), is widely considered to be central to the early development and spread of Christianity, particularly westward from Jerusalem. Many Christians view him as an important interpreter of the teachings of Jesus.

Hattusa (also known as Hattusas, Hattusha or Khattushash) was the capital of the Hittite Empire. It was located near the modern-day village formerly known as Boğazköy, now named Boğazkale (40°01′N 34°36′E), a district center in Çorum province, Turkey, and was set in a loop of the Kızılırmak river (Marashantiya in Hittite sources and Halys in Antiquity) in central Anatolia, about 145 km (90 miles) north-east of Ankara.

Photo: Cybele, Hittite mother goddess at Anatolian Civilizations Museum at Ankara. The Hittites and Children of Heth are the second of the eleven Canaanite nations in the Hebrew Bible. They are purportedly descended from one Heth, a son of Canaan, son of Ham, and they are mentioned in Genesis as having sold land to Abraham.

Hittites is the conventional English-language term for an ancient people who spoke an Indo-European language and established a kingdom centered in Hattusa in north-central Anatolia from the 18th century BC. In the 14th century BC, the Hittite Empire was at its height, encompassing central Anatolia, north-western Syria as far as Ugarit, and upper Mesopotamia. After 1180 BC, amid general turmoil in the Levant associated with the sudden arrival of the Sea Peoples, the empire disintegrated into several independent "Neo-Hittite" city-states, some of which survived until as late as the 8th century BC. The history of the Hittite civilization is known mostly from cuneiform texts found in the area of their empire, and from diplomatic and commercial correspondence found in various archives in Egypt and the Middle East.

Photo: Hittite Sun Hattians - First civilizations in Anatolia Hattusa History of Hittites Hittites in the Bible The Hittites were an ancient people who spoke an Indo-European language, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa (Hittite URUḪattuša) in north-central Anatolia from the 18th century BC. In the 14th century BC, the Hittite empire was at its height, encompassing central Anatolia, north-western Syria as far as Ugarit, and upper Mesopotamia. After 1180 BC, the empire disintegrated into several independent "Neo-Hittite" city-states, some of which survived until as late as the 8th century BC.

Temple of Athene at Ancient Troy The Trojan War was a war waged, according to legend, against the city of Troy in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), by the armies of the Achaeans, after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, of which the two most famous are the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer. The Iliad relates a part of the last year of the siege of Troy, and the Odyssey describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the Achaean leaders. Other parts of the story were narrated in a cycle of epic poems, which has only survived in fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and Roman poets like Virgil and Ovid.

Caiques on spring flowers at coast of Troas to the South of Mount Ida at Adramyttian Gulf, modern Aegean holiday town of Akcay today. Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Trojan War cycle, especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer. Today it is the name of an archaeological site, the traditional location of Homeric Troy, Turkish Truva, in Hisarlık (39°58′N 26°13′E) in Anatolia, close to the seacoast in what is now Çanakkale province in northwest Turkey, southwest of the Dardanelles under Mount Ida.

Aizanoi Roman city in west-central Anatolia, investigations directed by Deutsches Archäologisches Institut. The Alcami Richard Bayliss of the University of Newcastle, excavations, survey, and computer modeling of a late Roman basilica. Alishar Höyük The impact of the Hittite Imperialism is explored at this Anatolian settlement, by Ronald L. Gorny; an abstract from the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

Göbekli Tepe is an early Neolithic site in Urfa, southeastern Turkey. It is famous for containing the world's oldest known stone temples (dated to before 9000 BC), and because it contradicts the long-held belief that the introduction of agriculture preceded the construction of large buildings. Göbekli Tepe was created by hunter-gatherers, yet is assumed to be a key location for understanding the origins of agriculture. (To give a timescale, remember that Stonehenge, a Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument located near Amesbury in the English county of Wiltshire, about 8 miles north of Salisbury, was erected between 2500 BC and 2000 BC although the surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC.)