Alacahöyük
A town older than Hattusa, entered through a Sphinx Gate. Its royal tombs of the third millennium BC held the bronze stags and sun discs that became emblems of Ankara and of Turkish archaeology.
Plan your visit
For a first visit at an easy pace.
Opening hours and prices change: see muze.gov.tr (opens in a new tab).
Times are our estimates. Distances are straight lines.
Where its treasures are now
Alacahöyük bronze standards (sun discs and stags)
c. 2500–2200 BC. Openwork discs and stag figures from the Alacahöyük royal tombs; the stag standard became the emblem of Ankara and of Turkish archaeology.
Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, AnkaraAmong the earliest iron blades (meteoric iron). Alacahöyük gold-handled iron dagger, c. 2400–2300 BC. Qualified How sure we are →
From here
Boğazkale
25 km. Hattusa, Yazılıkaya and Alacahöyük.
Kültepe
About 174 km as the crow flies. Kanesh, where Assyrian merchants traded tin and textiles around 1900 BC and left tens of thousands of letters and contracts, the oldest written documents in Anatolia.
The Hittite heartland
3 days, 6 places, Ankara to Kayseri.
Also nearby
- 24 kmYazılıkaya
Rock sanctuary, Hittite
- 25 kmHattusa (Hattuşa)
Capital city, Hittite (Late Bronze Age)
- museumAlacahöyük Museum
- museumBoğazköy Museum
Hattusa sphinxes, tablets
- museumÇorum Museum
Hittite finds
Location precise · Source (opens in a new tab)