Boğazkale

Boğazkale, formerly known as بغزكي (Boġazköy or Boğazköy or Boğazköi), and in ancient times as Hattuša¹ (or Khattushash or Hattusas or Hattusha) was the capital of the Hittites's state from sometime in the 17th or early 16th century BCE until some time before the end of that state about 1200 or 1180 BCE. The ruins, including the Great Temple, the fortifications. the palace, and the gates, are a World Heritage Site. Thereafter the higher part of the city (Büyükkaya) was still occupied, and later also parts of the lower city were re-settled. The Medes, Persians, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines took over in later times. These settlements came to and end after the Battle of Malazgirt (Manzikert) in 1071 CE. The town of Boğazköy was founded by Türkmen in the 17th century; the name means 'gorge village.' The town has about 27 thousand residents.²

External references

Lion gate of Hattuša

Historical maps

Footnotes

1. The written form during the literate period of the Hittites transliterates as _URUHa-at-tu-ša, where the prefix was a logogram for city. It isn't clear if Hittite cuneiform went all the way back to 1600 BCE.
2. Census 2000 and calculated estimate for 2010 in world-gazetteer.com, accessed 4/2 and 9/3/2011.
3. Estimates for all but 2000 in Tables of the World's Largest Cities, in Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987). In 1600, 1360 and 1200 BCE it was the largest city in what is now Türkiye (Turkey). In 1600 BCE it was the fourth, and in 1360 and 1200 BCE, the second largest city in the world.
4. Chandler puts the city's rank between "Babylon" (Babilu) with 60 thousand residents and Susa with 25 thousand. The city was destroyed circa 1700 BCE and re-occupied by the Hittites, who made it their capital at the moment of re-occupation or later. Some put the movement of the capital somewhat after 1600 BCE; others ascribe the move to an earlier ruler whom not all agree existed. Given the prominence of the city in Chandler, it is probable he believed the city to be the capital in 1600, either because he used an alternate chronology for the reign dates or because he agreed that an earlier ruler moved the capital.