Gordion – Not far from Ankara is a sleepy little village that houses a citadel and tomb of an ancient Anatolian people, called the Phrygians.

Who were the Phrygians? I honestly thought I had never heard of them, but discovered that their most famous king was none other than King Midas. [... The Phriggin’ Phrygians–Part I]]]>

Pots in the Gordion museum's garden.

Gordion – Not far from Ankara is a sleepy little village that houses a citadel and tomb of an ancient Anatolian people, called the Phrygians.

Who were the Phrygians? I honestly thought I had never heard of them, but discovered that their most famous king was none other than King Midas. Delving in deeper, we found out that another famous thing happened at Gordion. It is where Alexander the Great severed the Gordion Knot and conquered them.

Being so near, we took the first chance we could to go check out the site. It is not labeled as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and after we arrived, we could see why. The citadel mound is just that, a mound. You can climb around it and look down, but there’s really not much there. The tomb is likewise pretty boring. You walk through a tunnel to a reconstructed wooden building that purportedly used to house the remains of King Midas. At some point all the real treasures had been removed to museums throughout the world.

The one redeeming grace is the small museum that serves to pass on a little Phrygian history and explains the story of King Midas and the downfall of his people via Alexander. There were a few drinking vessels, some cooking pots, and a few other such artifacts to look at; all together the museum, tomb and citadel mound take about 1 – 2 hours to fully explore.

After our visit to the Phrygians, we did meander through some of the local villages and were able to take some wonderful portraits of village women and children, so this for me really made the jaunt worthwhile.