Turkey contains Hattusa, the ancient capital of the Hittite Empire.
Hattusa was located near modern Boğazkale in central Anatolia, within present-day Turkey. It became the Hittite capital around the 17th century BC and remained a major centre until the empire’s collapse around the beginning of the 12th century BC.
The city had massive defensive walls, monumental gates, temples, royal buildings, and extensive archives. Thousands of clay tablets found there provide some of the most important written evidence for Hittite administration, diplomacy, law, and religion. The Hittites wrote mainly in cuneiform and used several languages in their records.
Hattusa is especially significant because a surviving treaty between the Hittite king and Egypt’s Ramesses II is one of the earliest known international peace treaties. The site is sometimes placed in the broader ancient Near East, but its ruins are specifically in modern Turkey. UNESCO listed Hattusa as a World Heritage Site in 1986.