In central Turkey, about an hour southwest of Ankara, there’s a set of ancient ruins that hardly anyone visits. Here, in the middle of a dry, grassy plain studded with giant molehill-like mounds, is a dusty archaeological site, where a flat-topped hill slides into a huge excavation hole.
At the entrance, two opposing 10-metre-high walls form a gateway – the only real indication to the untrained eye that this might once have been an important place. The rest seems to be mostly collapsed walls and the vague outlines of ancient buildings, stamped on the landscape like a long-abandoned architect’s plan.
But while this place might lack the immediate wow factor of some of Turkey’s other ancient ruins: the splendour of Ephesus, the spectacular setting of Hierapolis, or the Hollywood glamour of Troy, don’t be fooled. Because this site is the birthplace of a legend every bit as intriguing as the story of Helen and Achilles.
This is Gordion, the city of King Midas.
Where is Gordion in Turkey?
Gordion is located in central Turkey, approximately 90 kilometres (55 miles) southwest of Ankara, the country’s capital. It sits in the region of Polatlı, Ankara Province and the nearest modern town is Yassıhüyük, a small village established after the Turkish War of Independence.
Side note: there’s lots of confusion about the correct spelling of this city. Some people try Gordian, Gordium, or even Gordia. All of these are wrong!
What’s important about Gordion in Türkiye?
Gordion is a UNESCO-listed archeological site and just one of the many amazing ancient ruins in Turkey.
Once the powerful capital of the Phrygian kingdom, Gordion thrived between the 12th and 8th centuries BCE. Its importance was in part due to its strategic location on the major east-west trade routes. What’s more, it’s thought to be the city ruled by King Midas of the Golden Touch, and later Alexander the Great came to Gordion and famously cut the Gordian Knot, symbolising his power.
Today, ongoing excavations have unearthed the Phrygians’ legacy: the majestic citadel, towering burial mounds, and the Midas Monument.
Who was King Midas?
You’ll probably remember the story from your Greek myths and legends books. King Midas is the ruler of a great kingdom, who does a favour for the god Dionysus and is rewarded with a wish. But the greedy and foolish Midas makes a very poor choice: he wishes for everything he touches to turn to gold.
It sounds like a great idea in theory (at least if you want to be super rich), but it turns out to be a spectacular mistake. Because as soon as King Midas tries to eat, his food turns to gold. When he hugs his daughter, she freezes into a golden statue.
Tormented, Midas begs Dionysus to free him from the wish, and eventually the god relents. He tells him to wash in the nearby river Pactolus, and when Midas does so, the curse washes away into the river.
Today the myth of Midas and the Golden Touch is said to give rise to the well-known expression: “Be careful what you wish for.”
Is the King Midas story real?
But this is just a myth, right? Surely it can’t be real!
Well, yes and no. Although the legend of the Midas Golden Touch is clearly a fantastical story, many myths actually start their lives as real historical events. And one of the great things about archaeology is that it can help separate truth from fiction.
And so it was that last year I was sent to Gordion to make a film about this very subject: delving deep into the city’s history and archaeology to find out how much of the story of King Midas is truth, and how much is myth.
So if you’re thinking about visiting Gordion ruins, or you’re simply curious to know more about the man behind the legend, read on.
The history of the Gordion ruins
In 1893, engineers working on the Berlin–Baghdad railway line stumbled across the remains of an ancient settlement near what is now the town of Yassıhöyük, in central Turkey.
Archaeologists immediately came to investigate, and what they found astounded them: an imposing Iron Age city dating back almost 3000 years, but now completely buried by time.
Excavations soon uncovered a monumental gateway leading into a once-magnificent citadel with palaces, public buildings and an industrial area. This was clearly an important place, and from studying ancient texts, experts deduced that it must be the city of Gordion, capital of Phrygia.
Gordion and the Phrygians
The Phrygian kingdom dominated central Anatolia (now Turkey) between about the 9th and 7th centuries BC. It sat at the intersection of the major east-west trade routes and its capital, Gordion, was one of the most important cultural and political centres of the ancient world.
But unlike the Greeks and Egyptians, the Phrygians left very few written records. There are hardly any inscriptions or carvings (it’s likely all their writing was on perishable material like wood or animal skins) and what little writing there is, is so scarce that epigraphers haven’t been able to decipher it.
That means that if we want to know more about Gordion and its rulers, we need to study the archaeology.
Was King Midas a real person?
Of course for there to be any truth at all in the story, the first thing we need to know is whether or not King Midas was a real person.
Ancient texts refer to three different kings called Midas who lived before the Greek myth was written down for the first time, but the most likely candidate is the one who ruled Gordion in the 8th century BC.
A clue to his importance lies about two hours west of Gordion, at a place called Yazılıkaya – or more commonly referred to as Midas City.
3000 years ago, this was an ancient Phrygian settlement and religious site, but today it’s most famous for this stunning 17-metre-tall rock-cut temple, covered with an intricate hand-carved design of squares and crosses.
The so-called ‘Midas Monument’ is thought to be a temple dedicated to the Phrygian main goddess Matar. But the most important thing about it is the inscription at the top.
Although it’s in the Phrygian language, archaeologists can understand it as these particular words are similar to Ancient Greek.
It says: ‘ATES […] MIDAI LAVAGTAEI VANAKTEI EDAES‘, which translates to ‘Ates […] has dedicated [this] to Midas, leader of the army and ruler’.
This stunning monument is dedicated to a king called Midas, which proves beyond doubt that Midas is not just a mythological figure but a real king. Experts think Ates might have been a local lord, who built this temple and dedicated it to King Midas to curry favour.
To confirm their theory, they were able to date the architectural style of the decorations to around the 8th century BC, which is when Midas was king of Gordion city, and when it reached the height of its power.
Visiting Midas City
If you’re in the area, I highly recommend a visit to Midas City/Yazılıkaya. As well as the Midas Monument there are dozens of other rock tombs, carvings, water cisterns, tunnels and staircases to explore, all carved by hand thousands of years ago, and all set in glorious scenery. And like Gordion, it’s very under-visited, so you’ll likely have the whole place almost entirely to yourself.
Did Midas turn everything he touched to gold?
So we know that Midas was a real person. But what about the next part of the myth? Did he really have the ‘Midas Touch’?
Clearly he didn’t literally turn everything to gold, but perhaps Midas was just filthy rich?
The answer to this question could lie in the weird mounds I mentioned earlier.
There are over 125 of them at Gordion ruins, and they’re tumuli, or burial mounds, dating from between the 9th century BC (the century before Midas lived) to the 6th century BC (200 years after his reign). Each one is thought to contain the burial of an important person, similar to the pyramids in Egypt.
The largest of them all is a massive 175 feet tall and nearly 1000 feet wide. It’s nine times bigger than any of the others and is the second largest burial mound ever found in Turkey.
Experts estimate it must have taken a team of 1,000 people over a year and a half to build this enormous structure.
Could this be the tomb of King Midas himself?
Inside the Midas Mound at Gordion Turkey
The ‘Midas Mound’, as it was optimistically dubbed, was excavated in the 1950s. It was a huge challenge because archaeologists didn’t know where exactly inside the mound the burial chamber would be. And if they just blindly tunnelled into it, there was always the very real danger of thousands of tonnes of soil collapsing on top of them.
So they called in oil-drilling experts, to probe the mound carefully from the top until they hit the burial chamber. Once they found it, they then hired local coal miners to carefully tunnel in from the side. Miraculously, they managed to hit the tomb exactly without collapsing the entire structure.
At the end of the excavation tunnel is the burial chamber itself: an ancient tomb built of pine and juniper wood. It’s the oldest wooden structure still standing in the world, perfectly preserved inside this airtight mound for 3000 years.
It’s so fragile that visitors are only allowed to look at it from behind a gate, but we were given unique (but very brief and tightly controlled!) access to step inside so we could film it.
Inside the chamber archaeologists discovered the skeleton of a man, lying on what looked like a collapsed bed, and surrounded by over 150 exquisitely decorated bowls and jugs, extravagant bronze jars, intricately carved wooden furniture, fragments of fine cloth and other precious grave offerings.
Is this the tomb of Midas?
Who is the man inside King Midas tomb?
To find out, the team used dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) to date the wooden structure, and discovered it was built in 740 BC.
Which is a problem because according to ancient texts, Midas became king in 740 BC and ruled for another 40 years. It can’t be his body in the King Midas tomb.
So if the dead man is not King Midas, who is he?
Studying the skeleton shows he’s quite old, about 60-65. He has an injury consistent with falling off a horse – something only someone very wealthy would have done. He’s been buried with all the pomp and status of a king. And he died in the year King Midas came to power.
So experts are pretty convinced this must be Midas’s father, the previous king, who was called Gordias.
Who was King Gordias?
Gordias was king of Gordion ancient city in the early part of the 8th century BC. Like his son Midas, he is also the subject of a legend.
In the story, the king of Phrygia dies without an heir. The oracle declares that the next man who enters the city driving an ox-cart should be made king. At that moment Gordias, who is a local peasant, drives his ox-cart into the city. So the people of Phrygia choose him as their king and rename the city Gordion (or Gordium) in his honour.
It’s not clear how much of this story is true, but we do know that Gordias was king of Phrygia and when he died, his son Midas succeeded him. And so it’s likely Midas built this huge tomb in his honour.
Did the ancient city of Gordion run with gold?
So we now think we know the identity of the man inside King Midas tomb. But the question remains: where did the legend of the Midas Golden Touch come from? Is it because Midas was incredibly rich?
Midas built the largest burial monument ever seen in the region and filled it with valuable treasures. From this we can deduce that he was clearly an immensely wealthy and powerful man.
But there’s a catch. Although the grave goods were very valuable, there was no actual gold at all found in the tomb.
The man with the golden shroud
But there was something else that may help explain why legend says this city ran with gold.
When the team studied the fragments of cloth found with the body, they found they were a bright golden colour. King Gordias was buried in a golden shroud.
In fact, Gordion ancient city had a vibrant and prosperous textile industry, and one of things they produced was this golden-coloured cloth, dyed with a mineral pigment called goethite, a sort of yellow iron oxide that gives fabrics a rich golden colour that would have shone in the Turkish sun.
It’s likely this yellow cloth was worn by the elites of Gordion society. So the story of the Golden Touch may have developed from seeing the rich walking round dressed in flashy golden clothes.
The hidden treasures of Gordion Turkey
Of course Midas may also have had plenty of real gold too, possibly now lost, or stolen by looters. And there may be more riches in the other burial mounds nearby.
In fact of the 125 burial mounds at Gordion, only 40 have been excavated. In one – the tomb of a young woman – archaeologists even found a gold bracelet and more than 100 gold beads and pendants.
So maybe there are still more riches waiting to be uncovered.
Obviously King Midas didn’t really turn things to gold by touching them. But it could well be that the myth of the Golden Touch does have some basis in truth: it’s a metaphor for the wealth of the real King Midas and the city of Gordion.
But what happened to Gordion ancient city in the end?
Arrival of the Persians to Gordion city
Archaeological evidence from the site shows that after Midas’s death, Gordion ancient city declined, and in around 546 BC it was conquered by the Persian army, which swept across western and central Asia taking everything in its path.
But the Persian occupation here doesn’t last forever. And its end is connected to one last myth surrounding the city.
How did a simple knot bring about the fall of the Persian Empire?
The legend of the Gordian Knot
According to legend, when Midas’s father, King Gordias was crowned, his ox-cart was placed in the city’s main temple, with a complicated knot joining the yoke to the wagon pole. The oracle declared that the man who can untie the knot will rule all of Asia. Many came to try, but no one could manage to untie this impossible knot.
Later, 400 years after the death of King Gordias, Alexander the Great travelled across Anatolia to conquer the Persians, and arrived at Gordion in 334 BC. He’d heard the legend of the famous Gordian knot, so he went to see it.
According to accounts written by several Greek historians, Alexander stood and stared at the knot for a while, then drew his sword and cut right through it.
Alexander went on to conquer Asia, just as the prophecy foretold.
Nothing remains of the cart or the knot now, but the fact that there are contemporaneous written accounts of the story is strong evidence that it really happened and that the Gordian knot really did exist.
So it turns out some myths and legends are not total fiction after all. The story of the Midas Touch may not be gospel truth, but Midas was real and archaeology has helped to prove that many of the legends surrounding him and the city of Gordion are based in truth.
Visiting Gordion ancient city: some FAQs
How do you get to Gordion?
Reaching Gordion in central Turkey involves a blend of planes, trains, and taxis. Fly into Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport, then zip southeast by high-speed train to Polatlı, a 35-minute journey. From there, a taxi whisks you 21 kilometres (13 miles) further to Gordion’s archaeological site near Yassıhüyük village.
Alternatively, you can simply drive all the way from Ankara, a journey of about 60 miles (90 km), which shouldn’t take much more than an hour.
Are Gordion ruins worth visiting?
This really depends on your interests. Gordion city is a fascinating archaeological site that is hugely historically important – which is why in 2023 it was named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
But it’s very old, and not nearly as visually impressive as other Turkish ancient ruins like Ephesus or Hierapolis. It’s also fairly remote and takes a bit of effort to get to.
Whether you think it’s worth it depends on how much you love archaeological sites! For most people with only a passing interest in such stuff, I’d say there are more dramatic historic cities to visit, and you should probably only head to Gordion city if you’ve already been to the others or have a specific interest.
What can you see at Gordion ruins?
The main things to see at Gordion are the ruins themselves, the museum, and the Midas Mound. The ruins consists of a large excavation pit with a path that leads all the way around the edge, which you can walk around and look down into the excavations to see the remains of buildings and city walls. Some sign boards explain what you’re looking at.
The Gordion museum and the Midas tomb are about a 5 minute drive from the excavation site, on the edge of the village of Yassıhüyük. The museum displays some of the many ancient artefacts they found while excavating the site, while the Midas mound houses the ancient wooden burial chamber of King Gordias, Midas’s father.
Can you visit the Midas Mound and King Midas tomb?
As I mentioned above, the Midas Mound is not actually the tomb of King Midas, but that of his father, King Gordias. However, yes you can visit it. The mound sits a little way away from the main Gordion site, but you can get there in about a 30-minute walk or a 5 minute drive.
Inside the tomb, a long well-lit tunnel that’s tall enough to stand up in leads to the burial chamber, which is protected by a fence due to its extreme fragility. So you can look at the burial chamber, but you can’t go inside it. You probably don’t need to spend more than 10 minutes here.
How long should you spend at Gordion ancient city?
Gordion is quite a small site and doesn’t take that long to visit. 1-2 hours allows you to see the major highlights like the city walls and the nearby museum. If you allow 2-3 hours, this would let you appreciate the ruins at a leisurely pace, take photos, and read information panels. You could even explore some outlying areas or visit the Tomb of Midas (additional ticket required).
Where to stay near Gordion Turkey
Unfortunately, the options for staying directly near the ancient city of Gordion in Turkey are quite limited due to its rural location. However, there are a few charming towns and villages in the vicinity that offer comfortable accommodations within a reasonable driving distance.
Polatlı: The closest town to Gordion, Polatlı offers basic but affordable hotels and guesthouses. It’s a convenient option if you plan to spend a full day exploring the ruins and want to save on accommodation costs. Click here to search hotels in Polatlı.
Sivrihisar: This historical town, situated about 40 kilometers from Gordion, boasts beautiful Ottoman architecture and a more vibrant atmosphere than Polatlı. You’ll find a wider range of mid-range hotels and guesthouses here. Note that Sivrihisar is west of Gordion, so you may find it easier to go back to Ankara. Click here to search hotels in Sivrihisar.
Ankara: While farther away (around 90 kilometers), Ankara, the capital city,provides the most luxurious accommodation options in the region. If you prefer upscale hotels with extensive amenities and don’t mind commuting to Gordion, this could be a good choice. Click here to search hotels in Ankara.
Watch the documentary: Gordion – Legend of King Midas
If you’d like to see the final film, it aired as part of the Series ‘Unearthed’ on Science Channel in the US and as ‘Blowing Up History’ in the UK. Unfortunately I think you need a subscription, but if you have a VPN you could try watching it here:
Note: Full credit for this post must go to the archeological team at the University of Pennsylvania and especially Brian Rose and Gareth Darbyshire of the Gordion Archaeological Project, whose dedicated work uncovering the site of Gordion enabled us to make the documentary and me to write this blog post.
Did you find this post useful? Have questions? Come follow me on Instagram, Threads or Twitter (X) and share your thoughts!
Liked this post?
Why not try some of my other Turkey or archaeology-related posts?
- Hunting for the Legendary Ruins of Troy, And How to Visit
- The Best Ancient Ruins in Turkey
- A Turkey Road Trip On The Gorgeous Aegean Coast
- An Unhelpful Guide to… Tepoztlan Mexico
- An Unhelpful Guide To… Aztec Ruins In Mexico
- An Unhelpful Guide to… Herculaneum Ruins
And thanks for reading!
Bella is a multi-award-winning travel writer, wildlife photographer and science and history documentary director from London. Among many awards and nominations she won Blogger of the Year at the British Guild of Travel Writers’ Awards 2023 and Best Photography at the Travel Media Awards 2020. Her work has been published by National Geographic, Wanderlust, and BBC Travel among others. Her films have been shown around the world including on the BBC, Discovery and PBS.
