Phrygian Timeline

3000 BCE – 1923 CE · 7 sites

All sites in this period

Country Record

Oldest Complex in Türkiye

Derinkuyu

800 BCE – 1923 CE

The deepest known underground city in the world, extending 85 meters below the surface with 18 levels. It could shelter approximately 20,000 people along with livestock and food stores.

Iron AgeClassicalByzantine

The Temple of Augustus in Ankara bearing the Monumentum Ancyranum inscription

Ancyra (Ankara)

1200 BCE – 400 CE

An ancient Phrygian and Galatian stronghold whose Roman Temple of Augustus preserves the only surviving complete copy of Augustus's political testament — the Monumentum Ancyranum — inscribed in both Latin and Greek.

Iron AgeClassicalHellenistic

Kaymaklı Underground City

800 BCE – 1200 CE

The second-largest underground city in Cappadocia, with eight levels carved deep into volcanic tuff, where early Christians and local populations sheltered from invaders in a labyrinth of tunnels, churches, storerooms, and ventilation shafts.

Iron AgeRomanByzantine

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Colossae

1200 BCE – 800 CE

The Biblical city to which Paul addressed his Epistle to the Colossians, once a major Phrygian textile center, now a large unexcavated mound in the shadow of Mount Honaz — one of the most significant unexcavated sites in Turkey.

Bronze AgeIron AgeClassical

Gordion

950 BCE – 200 BCE

Capital of ancient Phrygia, famous for the legend of the Gordian Knot and the monumental tumulus believed to be the tomb of King Midas. One of the most important Iron Age sites in Anatolia.

HellenisticClassicalIron Age

Pessinus

800 BCE – 400 CE

The sacred city of Cybele, the Great Mother goddess, from whose temple the Romans carried a sacred black stone to Rome in 204 BCE — an event that changed the religious landscape of the Roman world.

Iron AgeClassicalHellenistic

Aizanoi

3000 BCE – 1400 CE

Home to the best-preserved Temple of Zeus in all of Anatolia and the world's first known stock exchange inscription, this remote Phrygian city also boasts a unique combined Roman stadium-theatre — the only one of its kind.

Bronze AgeClassicalHellenistic