From the Black Rock to Kocatepe, a Day in Afyonkarahisar

Begin the day at the new museum building on the Izmir highway on the western side of the city. The Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism gives the museum's address as Turgut Özal Boulevard in Dörtyol neighbourhood; from the city centre you get here by car or by municipal bus. The museum is closed on Mondays; check the hours for other days on the official page before you go. The story of this institution is older than its building, so keep that in mind at the entrance. In the early years of the Republic, objects collected by the Society of Friends of Antiquities became an official museum depot in 1931 and a museum directorate in 1933. The collection was shown in the Taş Medrese until 1970, in a second building from 1971 onwards, and moved to the present building in 2023. The indoor galleries run chronologically over five floors, so the best way to visit is to start at the bottom and work your way up. On the first floors, look at the terracotta vessels of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages. One of the objects highlighted by the Culture Portal is an Early Bronze Age jug with a red slip, decorated in the shape of a figurine head, and counted among the rare ceremonial vessels. Early Bronze Age and Hittite finds from Winifred Lamb's 1935-1937 excavation at Kusura Höyük near Sandıklı also came to this collection. On the following floors, trace the Hittite, Phrygian, Lydian and Persian periods; here you meet the first owners of the fortress rock you will see later in the day. The most sought after part of the museum is the wooden burial chamber from the Tatarlı Tumulus near Dinar. Part of its beams, decorated with figures painted in madder, were smuggled abroad after an illicit dig in 1969, and they were brought back to Türkiye and restored in 2004. The chamber, which carries traces of Phrygian and Persian culture together, was reassembled in 2023 and has since been shown in a dedicated section of the new building. On the Roman floor, look for the group of statues found in 1964 during road building at Kovalık, in the territory of Çavdarlı village. The group consists of 71 inventoried pieces, dates to the late 2nd century AD, and the Culture Portal presents it as unique in the world in terms of its numbers. Also walk around the garlanded sarcophagus found during the foundation dig of a hospital in Dinar, carved from the white marble of the ancient Docimeium quarries at İscehisar. One long side shows the struggle between Achilles and the Amazon queen Penthesilea, the other the meeting of Perseus and Andromeda. This sarcophagus shows how far back the province's marble working, still alive today, goes. If you come across a coin in the cases with the head of Zeus on the front and poppy and wheat on the back, stop, because the story of the city's name is written on that small piece of metal too. Pass through the Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman halls and go up to the fifth floor; devoted to the War of Independence, it works as a preparation for the last two stops of the day. Reconstructions, realistic mannequins and multimedia displays enrich the galleries, so do not rush through them. Before you leave, step into the garden, where Roman and Byzantine grave stelae, sarcophagi, storage jars and Ottoman gravestones are shown in the open air. From here return to the city centre and the foot of the fortress rock; the fortress is not within walking distance of the museum.

Source: Kültür Portalı, Afyonkarahisar Müzesi.

You reach the fortress on foot from the city centre, through the old Afyonkarahisar houses; Afyonkarahisar Municipality notes that the way is short and marked with signposts. Before you start the climb, stop for a moment at the foot of the rock and look up. According to the Culture Portal this is a natural rock mass of volcanic origin, 226 metres high, and the city's name comes from its dark colour. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the city was founded at the foot of this steep sided hill, at an altitude of about 1010 metres. The stairs have been restored, but they are long and steep; do not hurry, and catch your breath on the landings. In summer, do not leave the climb for the hottest hours of midday, and take water with you. As you go up, think of how many names this rock has carried. During the Arzawa campaign of the Hittite emperor Mursili II, around 1350 BC, this was a fortified position called Hapanuva, meaning High Hill. In the Roman and Byzantine periods the rock was ringed with walls and took on the look of a fortress, and according to Wikipedia it was known as Akroenos. When you reach the summit, walk slowly around the flat top and look for the cisterns. Sources record four large cisterns on the summit, as well as traces of culture from the Phrygian period. These Phrygian traces are a good starting point for anyone planning to visit the rock monuments of İhsaniye the next day. The walls were repaired in 1235, in the time of the Seljuk Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad, by the fortress commander, the architect Bedrettin Gevhertaş; a small masjid and a palace beside it were also built in the fortress. According to Evliya Çelebi, the ruin of this Seljuk masjid still stood inside the fortress in his time. In 1573, on the order of the Ottoman Sultan Selim II, Mahmut Bey repaired the bastions, the cisterns and the tower once again. In the Ottoman period the fortress kept its importance both as a place where the treasury and the people's goods were kept safe and as a prison, losing that role after the Tanzimat. Now walk to the edge and look out over the city in all four directions, because the real gift of the fortress is this view. According to the TDV, settlement lay inside the fortress until the middle of the 12th century and spilled outside it, onto the southwestern slopes, in the 13th century. In the 15th and 16th centuries new neighbourhoods grew to the south and east of the fortress, and in the 17th century the city expanded eastwards. As you look at the spread of roofs below, you can read this growth like a map. Look west towards the museum you visited in the morning, and southwest towards the plain where Kocatepe, your last climb of the day, stands. The best light for photographs comes late in the afternoon, when the shadow of the black rock stretches over the city. The wind can blow hard on the summit, so keep a jacket handy and take care near the edges. Use the same stairs on the way down, and once at the foot walk a few streets towards the Victory Museum.

Source: Kültür Portalı, Afyonkarahisar Kalesi.

The Victory Museum is in the city centre, opposite Anıtpark, on Milli Birlik Avenue, next to the Government House. Before you go in, look at the facade from the opposite pavement, because the building itself is a document. It was built in 1913-1914 by the mayor Esbabzade Hüseyin Tevfik Efendi as the municipal building, together with the Government House. Sources record that Armenian master builders carried out the construction. The two storey masonry building has three doors, on the east, the west and the south. Notice that the ground floor windows are flat arched, while those on the upper floor have pointed arches. The window frames and corners are in projecting cut stone, which gives the facade its plain but dignified look. After the city was freed from occupation on 27 August 1922, this town hall was used as the headquarters of the Western Front. The Commander-in-Chief Mustafa Kemal Pasha, the Western Front commander İsmet Pasha, the Chief of General Staff Fevzi Pasha and the head of the Western Front operations branch Tevfik Bıyıklıoğlu worked here. The plans for the Battle of the Commander-in-Chief were drawn up in these rooms. Vacated when a new town hall was built in 1935, the building served various purposes for years, and in 1985 it was handed over to the Directorate of the Commander-in-Chief Historical National Park to become the Victory Museum. Inside, give your time first to the photographs, the topographic map and the panels. The cases also hold weapons used in the war, defensive wire and everyday things such as tin cans; it is these ordinary objects that tell most about life at the front. The Culture Portal puts the number of objects in the museum at 213. Among them is a silver pair of scissors made specially for the opening of the Victory Monument, so look out for it. The rooms where the commanders stayed were rearranged and opened to visitors in 1995; stop at the thresholds and look at how they are laid out. The sources differ on the floor plan: the Culture Portal counts eight rooms upstairs, the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism nine, and you can count them yourself as you walk round. When you come out, cross to Anıtpark opposite. The Victory Monument by the Austrian sculptor Krippel was unveiled in 1936 and tells of the Turkish victory with two human figures on a cubic base. The reliefs on the sides of the base show the preparation of the plan of the War of Independence and a moment of battle; walk slowly around the monument and read each face. The museum belongs to the Directorate of the Commander-in-Chief Historical National Park, and the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism lists it among the special museums. From here return to your car and set off southwest towards Kocatepe.

Source: Kültür Portalı, Zafer Müzesi.

According to Afyonkarahisar Municipality, Kocatepe lies about 22 kilometres from the city centre, within the boundaries of Büyükkalecik. The Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism describes it as a hill reached by climbing about 8 kilometres further up beyond the town. The road is asphalted, but the Governorship notes that it is closed in winter because of heavy snow; if you are going at the end of winter, find out about conditions beforehand. When you leave the car, do not rush straight to the monument; first look around you. In the Governorship's words, this hill, 1874 metres high, commands the Afyonkarahisar and Sinanpaşa plains. This view is the quickest way to understand why the commanders chose it. Mustafa Kemal Pasha and his companions came to Kocatepe on the evening of 25 August 1922, and the Great Offensive was launched from here on the morning of 26 August, at first light. The first phase of the offensive was directed from the headquarters set up here and from the trench that still stands in place today. The Commander-in-Chief left Kocatepe around midday on 27 August 1922; on the same day the city was freed from occupation. Go up to the trench and look at the ground in front of it; from here you sense the breadth of the front that was directed. Then walk to the monument of 1953. Built in cut stone by the Ministry of National Defence, it carries a marble inscription with floral reliefs, so step closer and study the carving. The most prominent structure on the hill today, however, is the Atatürk Monument, opened in 1993 by the Ministry of Culture together with the landscaping around it. The statue is cast in bronze, weighs about 4 tonnes and reaches a height of 7.5 metres with its base. Walk around the monument; you will see that the direction the statue faces and the direction the trench faces open onto the same plain. The municipality recalls that the operation ended four days later, on 30 August, in decisive victory at Dumlupınar. Kocatepe is at the heart of the Kocatepe section of the Commander-in-Chief Historical National Park, declared on 31 August 1981; the park's other large section lies on the Dumlupınar side. Every year the first ceremony of Victory Week, held from 26 to 30 August, takes place here on 26 August. The Governorship writes that, despite this importance, few visitors come up the hill; for the rest of the year you will often find it quiet. On the way back, if you have time, stop at Kurtkaya in the town of Kocatepe. Here is the martyrs' cemetery of Captain Agah Efendi, First Lieutenant Feyzullah Efendi and 101 of their comrades in arms, who fell on 27 August 1922. The wind on the hill is strong and the air can be cooler than in the city; bring an extra layer. Towards sunset the plain turns golden, which is why the route ends here; plan your time so you get back to the city before dark.

Source: Afyonkarahisar Valiliği, Kocatepe.