King Midas's capital — the Gordian Knot, a 3,000-year-old wooden tomb, and the largest burial mound in Turkey
Gordion (modern Yassıhöyük) lies 100km southwest of Ankara on the Sakarya River, and was the capital of ancient Phrygia — the Anatolian kingdom of King Midas (Midas of the golden touch myth) and his father Gordias (of the Gordian Knot legend). The site was occupied from approximately 2400 BCE through the Byzantine period, with the Phrygian Iron Age city (950–700 BCE) as its most significant era. The citadel mound preserves the remains of the Phrygian royal palace complex (megaron halls with elaborate pebble mosaic floors), while the surrounding plain is dotted with approximately 80 tumuli (bu…
The Phrygian kingdom emerged in central Anatolia after the collapse of the Hittite Empire (c. 1200 BCE) and controlled the Anatolian plateau through the 8th century BCE. King Midas (739–696 BCE) corresponded with Assyrian king Sargon II and was the first non-Greek ruler to dedicate offerings at the Greek sanctuary of Delphi. The kingdom was destroyed by the Cimmerian invasions (696 BCE, the cause of Midas's legendary death), after which Gordion was absorbed into successive empires: Lydian, Achaemenid Persian, Macedonian, Seleucid, Galatian, and Roman. Alexander the Great's visit and sword-cut…