A Long Day at Hattusa, Capital of the Hittites

Go two and a half hours east of Ankara, and at the end of the narrow road that turns off at Sungurlu the superpower of the second millennium BCE is waiting for you. Hattusa, capital of the Hittite Empire, spreads across a hillside; a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986, with no other Bronze Age city in Anatolia to match its scale. Six kilometres of walls, huge gates, temples and a rock sanctuary above. You can do it in a day, provided you leave at 7 am; nobody else will tell you this, so we will.

Public transport is not practical; a bus to Çorum, a minibus to Boğazkale and a taxi inside the site would eat the whole day. A private car or a day tour from Ankara makes most sense. Take the Samsun road to Sungurlu (180 km), then the 30-km village road to Boğazkale.

Buy your ticket at the site gate around ten and follow the one-way road by car; the site is too big to walk, do not try. Your first stop is the Great Temple and the green cube stone; everyone touches it, so should you. Then the Lion Gate, a walk through the 70-metre Yerkapı tunnel to the outside of the walls, back in through the Sphinx Gate and a pause at the King's Gate. The ruins of Büyükkale are for archaeologists; the view is for everyone. That fills two and a half hours until lunch.

The restaurants in Boğazkale village serve home cooking and grills; the menu is short and the portions large. Çorum roasted chickpeas and keşkek are local specialities, so do not go home without trying them. Water and shade are almost nonexistent on site; keep a hat and a bottle ready in the car.

In the afternoon drive two kilometres to Yazılıkaya. Its two open-air chambers hold the carved procession of the Hittite pantheon and the frieze of the twelve gods; this is the most striking half hour of the day, so put your phone away and just look for a while. If time remains, see the original sphinxes from the Sphinx Gate in the Boğazköy Museum. Alacahöyük is 30 km away and deserves its own day; do not force it.

Leave Boğazkale at 4:30 pm and you are back in Ankara for dinner. The site is open until 7 pm in summer and 5 pm in winter; the museum pass is valid. You need comfortable shoes, sunscreen and a fully charged phone for finding your way around the site. Apart from the rest stops at Kırıkkale and Sungurlu there are few places to pause along the road, so have your tea there.