Gordion: what remains of the Phrygian capital

The explanations distinguish finds, interpretations and open questions. Sources appear at the end of the page.

What the source says

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre describes Gordion, approximately ninety kilometres south-west of Ankara in central Türkiye, as a multi-layered ancient settlement encompassing the remains of the ancient capital of Phrygia, "an Iron Age independent kingdom". According to the page, the key elements of the site are the Citadel Mound, the Lower Town, the Outer Town and Fortifications, and several burial mounds and tumuli with their surrounding landscape. UNESCO presents the site as key to understanding the Phrygian civilisation, which, in its words, excelled in timber construction, woodcarving and metalwork. Source 1.

Gate, mosaics and burial chamber

Two of the components are given dates on the page. The entrance to the Phrygian citadel is said to feature "the best-preserved Iron Age (10th-8th centuries BCE) fortified gate complex"; the date stands in parentheses next to the words "Iron Age". The largest of the tumuli, the "Midas Mound" (Tumulus MM), rises to a height of fifty-three metres, and its burial chamber is described as "the oldest known standing wooden building in the world (ca. 740 BCE)". The elite buildings within the citadel are said to feature the earliest known coloured floor mosaics, but the page gives the mosaics no date of their own. "Best-preserved", "earliest known" and "oldest known" are UNESCO's wording. Source 1.

Two sources, two frames

The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline for Anatolia and the Caucasus, 1000 B.C.-1 A.D., lists the "Phrygian kingdom" at ca. 800-700 B.C. Under the entry headed "ca. 730-?696 B.C." (the question mark is the source's), it states that King Midas rules the kingdom of Phrygia, which comprises the whole of Central and West Anatolia, with the capital at Gordion. It links the kingdom's wealth to its position at the crossroads of many first-millennium trade routes and describes the richly appointed burials of the kings in wooden chambers under large earthen mounds. UNESCO's range for the gate complex thus begins before the range the Met gives the kingdom. Both ranges lie within the Iron Age in Anatolia as this site defines it, approximately 1200-550 BCE, so the article is placed in that period only. Sources 1, 2.

What the sources do not establish

The name "Midas Mound" is not an identification of the person buried. The UNESCO page does not say who was buried in the chamber, and the date it gives the chamber, ca. 740 BCE, is earlier than the start of the range in which the Met places Midas's rule. On these two sources alone, the mound's name is not enough to say who was buried in it. The page also does not describe the end of the capital or any later phase of the site, does not discuss Phrygian inscriptions or language, and gives no measurement other than the height of the largest mound. It states that seventy years of excavation and research have revealed a remarkable quality, quantity and variety of remains, but does not name the excavators. Sources 1, 2.

Scope of reading: the UNESCO World Heritage Centre page on Gordion and the Met timeline page for Anatolia and the Caucasus, 1000 B.C.-1 A.D., were read on 24 October 2026. The Gordion excavation publications were not read, so this page gives no plans, levels, laboratory dates or finds from the excavation itself.