Boğazköy Museum

The Boğazköy Museum stands in the centre of Boğazkale, a short distance from the ruins of Hattusha, and is the natural first or last stop of a visit to the Hittite capital. It opened in September 1966 and was re-arranged in 2011.

The exhibition is thematic and chronological. The first hall passes from the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age through the Assyrian trading colonies to the Hittite period, then the Phrygian Iron Age, the Galatians, Roman and Byzantine times. A hall devoted to the Hittites uses panels and objects to explain how their kingdom was organised politically and socially, with seal impressions from the excavations shown by theme. Upstairs, the displays turn to Hittite religion, the army and the writing system.

The best-known exhibits are the two sphinxes from the Sphinx Gate of Hattusha. One was returned from a Berlin museum in 2011 and has been shown together with the other, previously in Istanbul, since November of that year. In the garden are another Hittite sphinx, tablets with hieroglyphic inscriptions and Roman and Byzantine milestones and grave steles.