Hittite Timeline

7000 BCE – 1453 CE · 8 sites

The Hittite kingdom and empire were run from Hattusa in north-central Anatolia, in cuneiform and in conversation with Egypt and Babylon. After the Late Bronze collapse, smaller Syro-Hittite states kept related traditions in the southeast.

All sites in this period

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Hattusha

1650 BCE – 1178 BCE

Capital of the Hittite Empire, one of the great powers of the Late Bronze Age. Features massive fortifications, monumental gates with lion and sphinx sculptures, and the Great Temple.

411

Bronze Age

65

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Continent Record

Oldest City in Asia

Tarsus

7000 BCE – 1453 CE

One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world — birthplace of St. Paul, where Cleopatra first met Mark Antony, and a major center of Stoic philosophy rivaling Athens and Alexandria.

411

NeolithicBronze AgeClassical

63

Kültepe

3000 BCE – 1500 BCE

Ancient Kanesh — the site of the oldest known Assyrian trading colony (kārum) and the source of the earliest written records found in Anatolia, predating the Hittite Empire.

312

Bronze Age

52

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Country Record

Longest Continuously Occupied Site in Türkiye

Arslantepe

5000 BCE – 100 CE

A UNESCO World Heritage Site in Malatya preserving the earliest known swords in history and evidence of one of the world's first state formations, spanning from the 6th millennium BCE to the Roman period.

321

NeolithicBronze Age

49

Country Record

Oldest Sanctuary in Türkiye

Yazilikaya

1400 BCE – 1180 BCE

The most important Hittite open-air rock sanctuary, featuring elaborate relief carvings of the entire Hittite pantheon in a dramatic natural setting just outside the capital Hattusha.

222

Bronze Age

49

Country Record

Earliest Known Site in Türkiye

Alacahöyük

4000 BCE – 700 BCE

One of the most important pre-Hittite and Hittite sites in Anatolia. The royal tombs yielded spectacular gold and bronze artifacts from the Early Bronze Age Hattian civilization.

312

Bronze AgeIron Age

44

Country Record

Oldest Fortress in Türkiye

Karatepe-Aslantas

800 BCE – 600 BCE

A Neo-Hittite fortress guarding the Cilician Gates whose bilingual inscription in Phoenician and Hieroglyphic Luwian provided the key to deciphering the Luwian script — the Rosetta Stone of Anatolian archaeology.

321

Iron Age

44

Beycesultan

3000 BCE – 1200 BCE

A major Bronze Age palace complex in western Anatolia that may preserve one of the earliest examples of a Megaroid hall — the architectural ancestor of the Greek megaron — and evidence of a powerful pre-Hittite Anatolian kingdom.

222

Bronze Age

37