Midas Monument, Yazılıkaya
Yazılı
Interesting facts
- A second inscription at the niche records that a man named Baba, an adviser and leader from Tyana, dedicated it, linking the shrine to a city far to the east.
- The dedicator's name, Ates, is a form of Attis, a prominent name in Phrygia that was closely associated with royalty.
- One inscription on the monument uses a letter that only entered the Phrygian alphabet in the mid-6th century BC, a clue used in dating the facade.
- The facade faces east, and its lower edge starts some 1.2 to 1.8 metres above the ground rather than at its foot.
- At least 38 stepped altars have been catalogued on the plateau; the largest, the Throne Monument with twin idols, crowns its highest point around 600 BC.
- The smaller Hyacinth Monument takes its name from a naturalistic flower ornament on its gable, and its niche is carved inside like a chessboard.
- Four hilltop fortresses, Akpara, Pişmiş, Gökgöz and Kocabaş, stand around the settlement and protected it.
- A rock tomb known as the Pyramid Tomb bears a lion relief and hunting scenes, which may have been added in Roman times.
- The British traveller William Martin Leake made the first rough sketch of the monument, and Charles Texier published a detailed engraving in 1834.
- The site was not abandoned when the Phrygian kingdom fell: its rock-cut structures stayed in use through the Hellenistic and Roman periods.
Why it is worth it
On the edge of a rocky plateau in the Phrygian highlands, a whole cliff face has been carved into the front of an imaginary building. The Midas Monument is about 17 metres high and 16.5 metres wide: a flat facade crowned by a gable with corner ornaments and covered with a dense abstract geometric pattern, thought to imitate the painted terracotta panels that once faced Phrygian buildings. At its foot a niche, probably made for a statue of the mother goddess, is marked with the word Matar, "Mother", the Phrygian name for the goddess the Greeks later knew as Cybele.
Carved on the monument is a dedication in Old Phrygian in which a man named Ates, son of Arkias, dedicates the monument to Midas, giving him titles usually translated as "leader of the people" and "lord". It was this line that earned the facade its long-standing reputation as the tomb of King Midas, though it is not a tomb at all but a cult monument, perhaps honouring the dead king. Its date is still debated: some scholars place it in the early to mid-7th century BC, soon after Midas's death, while others prefer the first half of the 6th century BC. The pattern on the facade has close parallels in Anatolian architectural terracottas made before about 600 BC.
The monument belongs to a larger site often called Midas City, whose plateau is about 650 metres long and 320 metres wide and rises some 60 to 70 metres above the valley. Its rock is honeycombed with traces of Phrygian life and worship: an unfinished facade begun around 550 BC, a smaller decorated facade known as the Hyacinth Monument, dozens of stepped altars and idol niches, rock-cut tombs, cisterns and two vaulted rock-cut tunnels. For the Phrygians, whose political capital was Gordion, this place was probably their most important religious centre. Travellers recorded it from the early 19th century, the French Archaeological Institute excavated here before and after the Second World War, and the Eskişehir Museum resumed work in the 1990s. The tiny village of Yazılı, whose name means "inscribed", sits beside the ruins.
Getting there
The site lies in Han district of Eskişehir Province, about 51 km north of Afyonkarahisar and 66 km south of Eskişehir. The nearest airport is Zafer Airport (KZR), about 51 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Yazılı, Phrygian Yazılıkaya, or Midas Kenti is a neighbourhood of the municipality and district of Han, Eskişehir Province, Turkey. Its population is 45 (2022). It is located about 27 km south of Seyitgazi, 66 km south of Eskişehir, and 51 km north of Afyonkarahisar. It is known for its Phrygian archaeological remains and inscription mentioning Midas.
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