On the Midas trail in Gordion

One can't help but think the same words must have run through the mind of Rodney S. Young in 1957 when he peered inside the wooden chamber that formed the heart of the Great Tumulus at Gordion, near Yassıhöyük in Central Anatolia. Of course he was not met by the glitter of gold and lapis lazuli. On the other hand he found himself looking at a wonderful cache of Phrygian bronze bowls, brooches and cauldrons. What's more, whereas Tutankhamun was a little-known and relatively unimportant pharaoh, Young was looking at the skeleton of a man aged around 60 who at the time he must have hoped would turn out to be the infamous King Midas.

Standing 53 meters high, the Great Tumulus (a.k.a. the Midas Mound) was the largest of around 80 similar mounds that dotted the surrounding plain, roughly one hour's drive west of Ankara. Its size suggested that it must contain the remains of someone especially important, and Midas was far and away the best known of the rulers of Phrygia, the kingdom that had covered much of this area between 1100 and 300 B.C. For those who know their Greek mythology, King Midas will need little introduction. He it was who when offered the chance to have a wish come true asked that everything he touched should be turned to gold. But as proof of how cautious we should be about what we wish for, he failed to take into account that that everything would include his food, his drink and even his daughter. Eventually he was forced to plead with Dionysius to have his great gift taken away again. Sent to swim in the river Pactolus at Sardis, near modern İzmir, he watched as the power to create gold passed from him into its waters, which is sometimes said to explain why Sardis went on to become so wealthy.

Midas attracted myths as a magnet attracts iron filings, and in another story we learn how he was foolish enough to prefer the pipe music played by the satyr Pan over the lyre playing of the god Apollo. In return for his folly, Apollo gave him the ears of a donkey which the king kept concealed beneath a turban. Of course whenever he went to get a haircut his barber could see his shame, and unable to keep the secret entirely to himself, the poor man eventually ran down to the river, dug a hole and confided it to the ground. Later reeds grew up over the hole which ever afterwards whispered “King Midas has donkey's ears” as the wind rustled through them.

According to Greek and Assyrian sources, the real King Midas seems to have lived in the late eighth century B.C., and it's now thought more likely that the man buried inside the Great Tumulus was Gordias, the king who laid the foundations for the city of Gordion in the ninth century B.C. Today you can walk right into the heart of the tomb where a chamber of juniper and pine protected his body. The most important finds from the site are on display in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara.

Gordion itself lay two kilometers further along the road, and archeologists from the University of Pennsylvania have been working here since the 1950s, uncovering two main Phrygian citadels, the second built directly on top of the first which had been destroyed by fire. At this little visited but hugely important site, they have uncovered a number of megarons, or great halls, one of which was laid with a black-and-white pebble mosaic floor, dating back to the seventh century B.C. and the oldest ever found in Anatolia (it's now on display in a museum in Yassıhöyük). However, to non-specialist eyes, their most striking find was a huge gate complex set into walls 10 meters high and dating back to the ninth century B.C. This complex, the oldest known from Iron Age Anatolia, was able to survive almost intact because the gate into the second citadel was built virtually on top of it. Today you can walk right round the perimeter of the excavation, where work to provide a modern interpretation of the site is currently in progress.

It was presumably somewhere amid these ruins that Alexander the Great cut the famous Gordian Knot. This was a complex knot that secured the ox-cart in which King Gordias had first ridden into town and which was preserved in a local temple. Legend had it that the next master of Asia would be the man who could untie it. Frustrated at his failure to do so, Alexander slashed the knot with his sword in 334 B.C. and went on to rule much of Asia. However, when he died aged only 33, there were those who attributed his early demise to the fact that he had cheated.

In the village of Yassıhöyük, a small museum across the road from the tumulus houses finds from the ruins of Gordion as well as a reconstruction of what the tomb's interior would have looked like. Perhaps the most impressive items on show are the painted terracotta tiles and drains which once adorned the second Phrygian citadel. These include panels that show a pair of leopards and a pair of goats nibbling leaves from a tree and suggest a city of great beauty and sophistication which is hard to imagine from the bare bones of the site itself.

You can easily visit the Great Tumulus, the remains of Gordion and the museum on a daytrip from Ankara. However, to make more of the experience, you might like to spend the night in nearby Polatlı. There's little in town that's of much historic interest although as you come in from the bus station you will spot on the left-hand side of the road a mound that has been excavated to show that the site has been inhabited since the Early Bronze Age (c. 3000 B.C.). But Polatlı is a leafy, well-ordered town and a good example of modern Anatolia at its best. The focal point is a square decorated with the predictable statue of Atatürk, but behind it, some of the old railway buildings have been tarted up and given new life as cafés overlooking a water feature that may or may not have water in it when you visit. Nearby stands a memorial to Necip Fazıl Kısakürek (1905-83), the poet responsible for a popular poem called Sakarya Türküsü, as well as a lively monument commemorating the Turkish War of Independence (1919-22).

A group of hotels are gathered together around the main square. The nicest is the Otel İkbalhan, which offers breakfast in the adjacent bistro and even manages that unusual amenity, a decent single room. In the evening you might want to stroll down to the Urfa Sofrası, where a pleasant restaurant serves dinner in the grounds of a building designed to imitate an old Ottoman mansion.

WHERE TO STAY

Hotel Gordion Tel.: 0 (312) 623 1399

Otel Frigya Tel.: 0 (312) 622 9900

Otel İkbalhan Tel.: 0 (312) 622 2601 

HOW TO GET THERE

There are buses every half-hour from the AŞTİ bus terminal in Ankara to Polatlı. Some trains to Ankara from Haydarpaşa in İstanbul also pass through thr Polatlı town center. Buses from Polatlı to Yassıhöyük are very infrequent, but Polatlı taxi drivers know the ropes and will run you there and back with waiting time for about TL 50.