Hattusa

Timeline

1. 6th millennium BC

   Earliest settlement

   Chalcolithic-era settlement traces appear at the site, marking the first documented human presence on what would become Hattusa.

2. Late 3rd millennium BC

   Hattians settle

   The Hattian people establish a settlement at the site, calling it Hattush, and develop a distinct Anatolian culture centered here.

3. c. 1700 BC

   Anitta destruction

   King Anitta of Kussara burns the city and inscribes a curse forbidding its rebuilding, though later generations would defy it.

4. c. 1650 BC

   Capital transfer

   The Hittite king Hattusili I moves the capital from Nesa to this site, inaugurating the Hittite Old Kingdom centered at Hattusa.

5. 14th century BC

   Peak of empire

   Under Suppiluliuma I, Hattusa expands to 1.8 sq km, with 6 km of walls and over 30 temples built on the heights of the Upper City.

6. 1274 BC

   Battle of Kadesh

   Muwatalli II faces Egypt's Ramesses II at Kadesh in modern Syria, in the largest chariot battle of the ancient world.

7. 1259 BC

   Silver Tablet treaty

   Hattusili III and Ramesses II conclude the earliest known international peace treaty, a silver tablet copy archived at Hattusa.

8. c. 1200 BC

   Collapse

   In the Late Bronze Age collapse, fire sweeps the city and it is abandoned; the Hittite state vanishes and the site is forgotten.

9. 1834

   Rediscovery

   French archaeologist Charles Texier identifies the ruins near Boğazköy, reintroducing the site to European scholarship.

10. 1906-1907

    Cuneiform archive

    German Oriental Society excavations under Hugo Winckler unearth 30,000 cuneiform tablets, proving Hittite is an Indo-European language.

11. 1986

    World Heritage

    UNESCO inscribes Hattusa as a World Heritage Site under criteria i, ii, iii, and iv, securing international protection.

12. 2001

    Memory of the World

    The Hittite cuneiform tablet collection is added to UNESCO's Memory of the World register, making Hattusa doubly recognized.

13. 2003

    Wall reconstruction

    A 65-meter section of the city wall is reconstructed using traditional mudbrick technique, letting visitors experience the 13th-century BC scale.

Detailed History

Hattusa's origins reach back to the Chalcolithic 6th millennium BC. By the end of the 3rd millennium BC, the Hattians had settled the site and called it Hattush. In the 19th-18th centuries BC, Assyrian merchants from the karum-network centered on Kanesh (modern Kültepe) set up a trading post here, occupying their own quarter of the Lower City. Around 1700 BC, King Anitta of Kussara burned the city and inscribed a curse forbidding its rebuilding; later generations rebuilt it anyway. Around 1650 BC, the Hittite king succeeding Labarna moved the capital from Nesa here and took the name Hattusili I, 'the man from Hattusa', inaugurating the Hittite Old Kingdom. The empire reached its apex under Suppiluliuma I and Muwatalli II in the 14th-13th centuries BC: the city expanded to 1.8 sq km, double-skin walls stretched over 6 km, three monumental gates (Lion, King's, Sphinx) rose along the circuit, the Great Temple was finished in the Lower City, and over 30 temples filled the Upper City — supporting a population that modern estimates put around 10,000, with the inner city housing about a third of that number in the early period. In 1274 BC, Muwatalli II faced Egypt's Ramesses II at Kadesh in modern Syria, the largest chariot battle of antiquity. In 1259 BC, Hattusili III and Ramesses II concluded the earliest known peace treaty (the Silver Tablet), a copy of which was archived here (a modern replica is displayed at UN headquarters in New York). Under Mursili III, the seat briefly moved north to Sapinuwa to escape Kaskian raids before returning, and Hattusa remained capital until the kingdom's end in the 12th century BC. Around 1200 BC, in the Late Bronze Age collapse, fire swept the city and it was abandoned; the Hittite state vanished, and the site was forgotten for nearly three millennia. In 1834, Charles Texier rediscovered the ruins near Boğazköy; in 1882, Carl Humann produced a full site plan; and in 1906-1907 the German Oriental Society under Hugo Winckler excavated the Great Temple area and unearthed thousands of cuneiform tablets — the royal archive — proving Hittite is Indo-European and resurrecting a lost empire. UNESCO inscribed Hattusa in 1986 under criteria i, ii, iii, iv. In 2001, the tablets were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World register, making Hattusa one of the rare sites with dual UNESCO recognition.

Cultural Significance

Hattusa is the foremost late-Bronze-Age site of the ancient Near East, the heart of the Hittite Empire that stood alongside Egypt, Mitanni, and Babylonia as one of the four great powers of its era. UNESCO inscribed it in 1986 under criteria (i) a masterpiece of human creative genius, (ii) an important interchange of human values in monumental art and town planning, (iii) a unique testimony to a vanished civilization, and (iv) an outstanding example of architecture illustrating a significant stage in history. The 30,000 cuneiform tablets unearthed in 1906 form one of the oldest royal archives in the world and were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World register in 2001, transforming the study of international law (the Kadesh treaty), Indo-European linguistics (decipherment of Hittite), and the origins of state administration. Hittite religion, known as the 'land of a thousand gods', was a syncretic system absorbing Hurrian, Hattian, Luwian, and Canaanite deities — a pluralistic worldview rare in the period. A replica of the 1259 BC Silver Tablet treaty is displayed at the UN headquarters in New York, regularly cited as the origin point of international diplomacy. For modern Turkey, Hattusa anchors Anatolian multicultural heritage in the national curriculum, tied to the post-Atatürk emphasis on deep civilizational antiquity.

Architectural Details

The 1.8-square-kilometer site is laid out as a planned city with a Lower City (0.8 sq km on flatter ground) and an Upper City rising to the south. Under Suppiluliuma I in the 14th century BC, builders erected a double-skin wall — inner and outer faces about 3 m thick with 2 m between, for a total near 8 m — running over 6 km, among the most formidable Bronze Age defenses. The walls combine limestone foundations with mudbrick and timber, punctuated by towers and angled bastions. Five gates pierce the circuit, with the western Lion Gate, southern Sphinx Gate, and eastern King's Gate as the three monumental entries, each flanked by figural sculptures over 2 m tall. Beneath the Sphinx Gate runs the Yerkapi tunnel, 70 m long and 3 m high, of precisely cut limestone — a demonstration of advanced 13th-century BC stoneworking. The Upper City holds over 30 temples, each organized around a porticoed courtyard with surrounding storerooms. At the Lower City stands the Great Temple, dedicated to the Storm God Teshub and the Sun Goddess of Arinna, with warehouses, workshops, and tablet archives ranged around it. To the south extends an outer city of about 1 sq km with four further temples and elaborate gateways carved with warriors, lions, and sphinxes. The royal citadel of Büyükkale ('Great Fortress') was raised on the northeastern ridge as the king's seat. Domestic structures of timber and mudbrick have vanished, but stone temple and palace foundations remain in good condition.