Hattusa is the ancient capital of the Hittites, also known as Hattusas and Hattushash. Its ruins are now in Turkey, near the village of Bogazkale (Bogazkei). What was once a majestic city can now be seen in central Anatolia, where the longest river of Turkey flows - Kyzylirmak (Red River), in ancient times called Galis. Khattusa stood east of Kyzylirmak, where the river valley bends sharply.
This river was extremely important for the Hittites, who called it Marassantia: the river served as the southern and western border of the country of Hatti, the historical core of the Hittite kingdom. And even earlier, it was the border of the Hittite language. And after the Hittites, Kyzylirmak served as the eastern border of Asia Minor. Here, along the river, the last of several bloody battles passed the line between the ancient eastern states of Media and Lydia.
At the first glance at this area, one can only wonder what the warlike Hittites found in this mountainous area, where the climate is rather harsh, even arid. To find at least some vegetation on the site of the ruins, you have to walk pretty much: there are almost no trees here, a mountain steppe with an extremely rugged relief spreads around.
However, according to the records of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484 - c. 425 BC), the author of the first major scientific and historical work "History", which describes the life of many contemporary peoples, in antiquity around Hattusa water there were plenty, and there were many watermills.
It remains to assume that the Hittites liked these mountains from a purely defensive point of view: rocky ridges and artificial fortifications, as well as cliffs from the east and north made the city almost impregnable.
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The city of Hattusa has been known since the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. as a settlement founded by the Hittites. In ancient times, in these places there was a trade route from central Cappadocia to the Black Sea. At the same time, dense forests grew here, and the Hittites had no shortage of building materials for the capital. Merchants built their own quarters here, inhabited by immigrants from certain regions of Asia Minor and the Middle East.
At first, Hattusa was one of the city-states of Asia Minor, among which there was a struggle for power over peoples and trade routes. At first, the city of Puruskhanda won, then Kussar took the upper hand, whose king Anittas in about 1700 BC. e. captured and destroyed Hattusa.
However, already at the beginning of the XVII century. BC e. the city was restored during the reign of King Hattusili I, who proclaimed it the capital of the Hittite kingdom, and under King Hantilis I it was surrounded by a fortress wall.
It is interesting that Hattusa, even having a capital status, was by no means the center of the ancient Hittite culture (it was located further south) and was located closer to the northern borders of the state. It turns out that the Hittites were more concerned about the safety of the capital, not at all trying to make it a place for receiving foreign ambassadors and trade caravans. When the Hittite power was flourishing, it expanded noticeably to the east and south.
The city was abandoned by the population at the beginning of the XII century. BC e., when famine began in the country, and then it was invaded by the "peoples of the sea" (Philistines, Achaeans, etc.), who destroyed the Hittite kingdom.
Hattusa is the ruins of the capital of the once mighty Hittite kingdom, which governed the vast lands of Asia Minor and the northeastern Mediterranean.
Today, Hattusa is the site of the most important archaeological works that can shed light on many mysterious pages in the history of the Hittite kingdom.
The ruins of the Hittite capital Hattusa were discovered in 1834 by a group of enthusiasts led by Charles Dexter. The first to connect the found ruins with the Hittite kingdom was the Rev. Archibald Henry Seis (1846-1933), founder of Assyriology and professor of Assyriology at the University of Oxford. It was he who had the honor to prove - on the basis of a study of ruins and cuneiform tablets - that the Hittites were not just one of the many peoples mentioned in the Bible, but the people who inhabited the vast Hittite empire.
The expeditions were chaotic, the times were restless, and robbers ruled the mountains. Those Orientalists who managed to get to the ruins were in a hurry to collect everything that came to hand and leave the dangerous places as soon as possible.
It took many more years for systematic excavations to begin in 1906. They were led by the German Oriental Society, but excavations were interrupted during the First World War and the Great Depression (1913-1931), during the Second World War and post-war reconstruction (1940-1951). This work is still being carried out by the German Archaeological Institute.
In 1986, the excavations of Hattusa were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The entire excavation area in the vicinity of Bogazkale is relatively small, it is divided into several sections, and its total area barely exceeds one and a half square kilometers.
The central excavation site is two rocks, united under the common name Buyukkale, which in Turkish means "Big Fortress". At a distance of half a kilometer to the north of Buyukkale rises Buyukkaya, or "Big Rock". To the east of Buyukkale, where a relatively flat area is located, the Lower City was located in antiquity: it was the most ancient part of the Hittite capital. To the south of Buyukkale was the Upper City, which was actually the fortification of the capital. The fortress wall surrounding it stretches for more than three kilometers.
In addition to these sites, which are located in the area of the city of Hattusa itself, there are three small hills in the vicinity that were once inhabited. The southern outskirts of the city - Yerkari hill - is all that remains of the once powerful defensive rampart, built in the last centuries of the Hittite state.
The most important find were two sculptural images of a sphinx found near the southern gate of Hattusa. In 1917 they were taken to Germany for restoration.
During detailed excavations of the city, from which, I must admit, little has remained, the remains of the fortress walls, a palace, temples, an aqueduct, residential premises and other structures were found.
The so-called Bogazkei archive, found in 1906 by an expedition of the German orientalist Hugo Winkler (1863-1913), stands apart from all the finds. The archive consisted of over 15 thousand clay cuneiform tablets in Hittite, Akkadian and other languages. The texts on the tablets contained the most important documents: tsar's annals, chronicles, decrees, diplomatic correspondence, religious texts. All of them belonged mainly to the XIV-XII centuries. BC e.
The Turkish village of Bogazkale consists of one street full of shops serving tourists who come to admire what remains of the great Hittite empire.