Hattusha

About

First settled around 2000 BC, Hattusha rose to prominence a few centuries later with the arrival of the Hittites. First the capital of their kingdom, the city later became the center of a kingdom that rivalled the ancient Egyptians. In the 12th century BC, Hittites fell victim to the so-called ‘Bronze Age Collapse’, and Hattusha was eventually abandoned. Today, the ruins are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, serving as a unique testimony to the might of this ancient empire. In the Lower City, you can see the remains of ancient civic life. The central structure here was is the Great Temple, which had to cult rooms, likely devoted to the empire’s greatest gods: the Storm God Teshup and the Sun Goddess of Arinna. The Upper City is home to several temples, which are guarded by heavy fortification punctuated by ornamental gates, which are considered some of the best examples of Hittite stonework.