Gordion may have been the capital city of the Phrygians, but this valley held their most sacred temple. This is labeled on the map as King Midas’ tomb as well, because some of the inscriptions mention King Midas, but he is not believed to have been laid to rest here.
Phrygian road
Another beautiful day, we drove down to Eskisehir just to get out of the house. When we arrived, we found a nicely laid out city, but there was absolutely nothing to do. Taking a look at our guidebook, we discovered that a whole valley of Phrygian ruins lies just east of there.
The site is much more extensive and interesting than Gordion. There is no museum, but there is a trail to follow that leads you around the temple grounds. We enjoyed seeing the temple stone faces, many stairs and tunnels, some tombs, and even an ancient Phrygian road carved out of the tufa and complete with wheel ruts. The sites were some of the best preserved that we’ve seen. It took about an hour to walk the path around all the sites. The ticket taker also provided us with an informative brochure written in both Turkish and English.
The temple and its surrounds was only one of about six sites, but it was the only one our car could get to. The others, four castles and some more tombs, were all off the paved road. It has been raining a lot here, and there was too much mud to risk it. If you plan on going, try to go in a very dry season or with a four wheel drive vehicle.