A city once home to the world’s richest king now looks more like a quarry.
Gordion was the capital of ancient Phrygia, an Iron Age kingdom of Anatolia. Today, it is located at the site of modern Yassıhüyük, about 45 miles southwest of Ankara, the Turkish capital.
Now, the city is a rocky landscape with a huge mound, the buried remains of an enormous citadel, rising from the surrounding land. From there, you can see open excavations, stone walls and smaller mounds.
It is said to have been ruled by the legendary King Midas. Midas reigned at Gordion during the Middle Phrygian period. He was likely on the throne by 740 BC.
In Greek mythology, he is popularly remembered for his curse to turn everything he touched, including his own daughter, into gold. The moral of the story is well-known: be careful what you wish for.
He was king until the sacking of Gordion by the Cimmerians, an equestrian nomadic people from modern-day Iran, in 709 BC.
According to ancient Greek geographer Strabo, they overran the city and King Midas took his own life by drinking bull’s blood, another name for realgar – an arsenic sulfide mineral.
This was believed to have been the cause of a widespread burning of the eastern portion of the Citadel Mound of Gordion, for which there is ample evidence.
This event sealed and preserved many buildings and hundreds of objects from the Early Phrygian phase, providing an insight into the character of the elite district.
Archaeologists initially interpreted the destruction as the remains of the Cimmerian attack. However, the fire is no longer associated with the incursion and was probably accidental, with no indications of a military attack.
It is believed Midas was buried in Gordion. In 1957, Rodney Young and a team from the University of Pennsylvania opened a chamber tomb at the heart of the Great Tumulus, a 50-metre-high burial mound.
They discovered a royal burial, its timbers dated to about 740 BC complete with remains of the funeral feast and “the best collection of Iron Age drinking vessels ever uncovered”.
The remains of Gordion are visitable, with ancient caves and tombs alongside a magnificent 3,000-year-old and 17-metre-tall temple facade.
