ALİŞAR MOUND / GORDION / MIDAS TIMULIS / PHRYGIAN VALLEY / YASSIHÖYÜK (MOUND)
We greet you at Kayseri Erkilet Airport at 09:00 and after a 2-hour journey we reach our first stop, Alişar Mound, and after our visit here we set off towards Polatlı Midas Mausoleum at around 12:30.
Alişar Hüyük dates from the Neolithic period to the Chalcolithic, Bronze Age and Hittite and Phrygian times. Apart from these periods, the remains of a Late Roman or Byzantine church have also been found. In Neolithic times (found 26 meters below the mound surface and approximately 11 meters above the uncultivated soil surface) the area was in the middle of a lake and the structure was limited to the mound. As the area dried out in the Chalcolithic period, settlement and habitation slowly spread from the mound and external defenses were built. Finally, in the Early Bronze Age, a large defensive fortification wall with gates was built.
We stop for lunch at a restaurant on the road around 13:00. After lunch, we continue our 3.5 hour Polatlı journey from where we left off. If our tour is in the summer, we visit the Midas Mausoleum, and if it is in the winter, we go directly to our hotel.
The Great Tumulus, or Tumulus MM, or the "tomb of Midas" in Gordium has a diameter of 300 meters and is 47 meters high. It was built for a very important man, whose body has been found in a wooden chamber that measured about 6 x 5 meters. Even the contents of his last diner could be reconstructed.The name "tomb of Midas" is modern. Because the timber used in the inner chamber was dendrochronologically dated to about 740 BCE, the deceased cannot be identical to the Mit-ta-a mentioned in an Assyrian text as the ruler of "Muški", who asked Assyrian support in 710/709. (According to Eusebius, this Midas died in 695.) Apart from this chronological problem, it is now doubted Muški was the Assyrian word for Phrygia.
We depart from our hotel at 09:00 and start our 2-hour journey to Yazılıkaya. We reach Yazılıkaya at around 11:00 and after a 45-minute tour and 30 minutes of free time, we reach lunch time and go to our restaurant to enjoy lunch.
Yazılıkaya, meaning ‘inscribed stone’, is also commonly referred to as the Midas Monument though it seems that it was not built by Midas at all (even worse it is sometimes called the Midas Tomb despite not being a tomb at all) . The monument is one of the Phrygians most impressive facade monuments and was dedicated to the mother goddess Cybele. A statue of Cybele was likely placed in the lower niche of the temple facade.
Also known as Gordium, this site has been inhabited for 4,500 years, reaching a zenith around 600 BC as the capital of the Phrygian civilization. The site consists of the ancient city mound and numerous tumuli (burial mounds), the best known being the tomb of the Phrygian’s most legendary ruler: King Midas.
Objects from the excavations of Gordion can be seen in the Ankara Museum of Anatolian Civilizations and in the Gordium Museum in Yassihöyük.
Immediately after dinner, we set off to visit the Gordion Museum, which consists of Yassıhöyük findings, and we have a wonderful Anatolian Chronology themed tour here and then set off towards Eskişehir.
The region defined as the mountainous settlement of ‘‘Phrygia Epiktetus’’ (Little Phrygia) in the triangle of Kütahya, Afyonkarahisar, Eskişehir is today known as the ‘‘Phrygian Valley’’. The area starting from Yeni Bosna Village, 7 kilometers away from the center within the provincial borders, and extending along the east of the province to Ovacık Village, 54 kilometers away from Kütahya; includes the northern part where Sabuncupınar, Söğüt, İnli, Sökmen, Fındık and İncik caves are located, and the Ovacık village, İnlice Neighborhood and its surroundings further south.
The mound was first identified by J. Mellaart and he dated the settlement as Early Bronze Age II and III. Due to the ongoing destruction in the mound, rescue excavations were necessary. In 1997, a one-term excavation was carried out by a team consisting of Gülsüm Umurtak and three archaeology students under the administrative leadership of Denizli Museum and scientific leadership of Refik Duru. The excavations aimed only to reveal the stratification in the mound.
