4707 km: Turkey, Bogazkale "Hattusa"

13 August 2019

Sivrihisar- Bogazkale "Hattusa"

Orux map screenshot: 
BLUE line is the planned route 
RED line is the actual route we drove

Daytime in the mountains is very hot in the sun, but in the evening the temperatures go down quickly. This morning it is around 17°C. Chilly, but good for Hosain to take Tara for a walk. They meet a shepherd with his guard dogs, who runs away frightened of this white wolf. Hosain and the shepherd have a good laugh together.

We have about 400km to drive till Bogazkale  to visit "Hattusa" the capital city of the Hettites, so we start "early" in the morning at 9am

On the way we visit Sivrihisar, that has one of the few seldjuk mosques "Ulu Cami" in Anatolia with 67 wood columns, dating between 1232 and 1272.

 The dogs "guarding " the entrance 

 Each column has a different base

A masterpiece

Finally we find one of the small shops open and luckily they have Sim cards with 7GB internet access. Now we are connected to the world again. The shop owners pamper us with sweets and tea while waiting to register the card.

Nasreddin Hoca, a famous personality all over the middle east is very present in Sivrihisar...

... and of course Atatürk, present all over Turkey

Hattusa the capital of the Hettites is embedded in a lovely hilly landscape beside the village "Bogazkale"

The reconstruction of a piece of the approx 6km wall

Poor Tara is really suffering in the heat 

The Tunnel

The end of the tunnel  

The stone wall has the  form of a cut pyramid

The stairs up to the sphinx gate

 The original of the 2 Sphinxes is in the museum. .. the copy looks very weird

View down to several temples

In Hattusa at the archelogical site a police officer stops us and asks something in turkish. Neither he nor his colleague on the phone can speak English or any other language then Turkish. With his Google translator we understand that he asks if we have a drone. We laugh and show him Hosain 's white hair to explain, that we are to old to have this technical toy. He is convinced and we can continue our sightseeing.

There are lots of mobile police check points on the streets, but whenever they see from a nearer distance our foreign plate number they wave us through.

We stay in a camping in Basket Hotel beside Hattusa with a nice view over Bogazkale and a hot shower in the morning.

 The owner brings us this plant from the field to taste. Its like a soft bean...good