Hattusas (Bogazkale) National Park:
The vestiges of the mythical
city of Hattusas, the capital and cradle of Hittite Civilisation, are scattered
over a steep terraced slope that overlooks the houses of Bogazkoy. Hattusas (easthern 217
km from Ankara) there is a early Hittite sites lie with impressive double walls, in which
are set the Royal Gate, the Lion Gate and the Yer Kapi (an underground tunnel),
ring the Hittite city of Hattusas, known today as Bogazkale. This city was the Hittite
religious center, also was known as the City of Temples because over 70 temples
stood there. The largest ruins are those of the great temple of the Storm God Tesup.
The Acropolis contained government buildings, the Imperial Palace and the archives
of the Hitite Empire. In 1180 B.C. the Phrygians devastated the city. After through
excavations at the site, the city walls are now being extensively restored. The top most
part of acropolis is occupied by the majestic ruins of the Buyukkale or Great Citadel
entrance to which is through the so called Gate of Lions, flanked by two lions in
hard bazalt. The citadel complex contained by living quarters of the Hittite sovereigns
and a number of rooms to be used by the public, including one thought to have been a
library from which numerous exambles of cuneiform writing have come, and in a particular a
baked clay tablet incised with the Treat of Kadesh, stipulated between the
Hittites and the Egyptians in 1279 B.C.
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