Site · Turkey
Hattusa
Hittite, 1650–1180 BCE
Hattusa was the capital of the Hittite Empire from about 1650 BCE until its destruction around 1180 BCE, laid out over a rocky hillside in central Anatolia with temples, palaces on the Büyükkale citadel and a rebuilt section of the mud-brick wall showing its original appearance. The tablets from its archives are the foundation of Hittite studies.
| Country | Turkey |
|---|---|
| Dates | 1650–1180 BCE |
| Status | Archaeological site and UNESCO World Heritage Site (1986) |
| Managed by | Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism (Boğazköy Museum) with the German Archaeological Institute excavation |
| Access | Open daily with a ticket covering the city, the rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya and the Boğazköy Museum; a road loops around the 6-km walled circuit. |
| Coordinates | 40.02, 34.615 (public site) |
What was found
German excavations since 1906 recovered over 30,000 cuneiform tablets from the royal archives, including the Hittite copy of the treaty with Egypt, plus the Lion and Sphinx Gates, the Great Temple, seal impressions, bronze weapons and the reliefs of the gods at Yazılıkaya.
Rules
Nothing may be collected; Turkey's Law 2863 on the Protection of Cultural and Natural Property makes all antiquities state property and criminalises removal, and a US–Turkey CPIA agreement has been in force since 2021. This article is for study and context only and is not a collecting locality.
Elsewhere
Cite this article
Stratum Strata. "Hattusa" (Site). Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/strata/sites/hattusa. Accessed 2026-09-21.
@misc{stratum-hattusa,
title = {Hattusa},
author = {{Stratum Strata}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/strata/sites/hattusa}},
year = {2026},
note = {Site article, Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum, commons. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
} Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.