Kerkenes Ruins

Situated on the ridge of Kerkenes Dağ near the village of Şahmuratlı, between the towns of Yozgat and Sorgun, Kerkenes is one of the largest Iron Age settlements on the Anatolian plateau. Its powerful stone defences, about seven kilometres long and pierced by seven gates, enclose an area of 2.5 square kilometres. While a Hittite presence has been theorised for the Late Bronze Age — with the underlying hill possibly being the sacred Mount Daha — the city's main, planned urban layout dates to the Iron Age; it was occupied only briefly, and its immense scale has led scholars to suggest it may have been an imperial foundation built by non-local peoples. An Old Phrygian inscription (designated K-01), found during the 2003 excavation season, points to a Phrygian presence at the site. Archaeologist Geoffrey Summers initially identified the city with Pteria, described by Herodotus as belonging to the Medes and captured by the Lydian king Croesus around 547 BCE, though he later revised this view, arguing that Pteria was instead founded by and belonged to the Phrygians, natural allies against Lydian expansion. Archaeological evidence shows the city was burned, destroyed and abandoned; the site also contains a later Byzantine castle. First examined in 1903 by J. G. C. Anderson, the site was excavated in 1928-29 by Erich Schmidt for the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, followed by the international Kerkenes Project (1993-2012) directed by Geoffrey and Françoise Summers of METU Ankara, with fieldwork now continuing under Scott Branting of the University of Central Florida. The city is also notable for its advanced water-harvesting and distribution system.