First published: 11/06/19.

Wojciech Fedoruk 2.5

Hattusha

Hattusha (Inscribed)

Hattusha by Wojciech Fedoruk

Sometimes this site surprises me – some sites, even remote ones from T-list, have plenty of reviews, where the others, much easier to visit, barely have any. The latter is the case of Hattusa, where until now there were only a few sentences. And the site is not remote and was visited by more than 60 travellers, which places it in upper half of most visited Turkish WHS.

Hattusa is archeological area which served as capital of Hittite empire from 15th to 11th century BC. There are many well preserved remainings, such as ruins of palaces, temples, city walls with well preserved gates and underground passages. Relative proximity of Cappadocia makes this site quite popular among tourists, including international groups. Sometimes there were even queues to the most popular parts. I had a problem with Hattusa – although most of the site is undoubtedly original, I think some of the monuments – including the most popular sculptures, are replicas (or, to be precise, modern reconstructions). Apart from this, we enjoyed our visit, even my children found it interesting, especially city walls with Yerkapi rampart. The whole site is really big and can't be reasonably done on foot – car is the most convenient, though you can do it on a bike (I did not see any bike rental though). Even with driving from one point to another visiting can take at least two hours. At the end of April it was quite warm but I cannot imagine how hot it is during summer – and there was not too much shade.

When you are there, go to another interesting site nearby. Alaca Hoyuk, a few kilometers from Hattusa, although not part of the inscription (not even on T-list) has a lot to offer, including gate with two original sphinxes (more similar to Egyptian ones than those in Hattusa) and many interesting reliefs.

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