Things to Know About Corum
Çorum has a rich historical and cultural legacy, dating back to prehistoric times. Throughout its history, the region has been home to many civilizations, with ancient settlements dotted across the landscape.
One of the most significant sites in Çorum is Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite Empire over 4,000 years ago. The legacy of this great civilization can still be found throughout Anatolia today.
For those seeking a break from the hustle and bustle of city life, Çorum offers the opportunity to explore the stunning natural beauty of İncesu Canyon through hiking. Visitors who enjoy outdoor activities such as cycling and camping can also head to Kargı Plateau in Osmancık or İskilip.
Places to Visit in Corum
Corum Museum
The Corum Museum, situated near the Monument of Martyrs in the city center, was opened on October 13, 1968. The museum is a single-story building consisting of four exhibition halls, as well as an area for storing materials and a photography laboratory.
The museum displays a selection of archaeological pieces from Alacahöyük, Boğazköy, Ortaköy, Eskiyapar, Pazarlı, and Kuşsaray, in addition to works from Alişar Höyük. The first hall and the corridor exhibit a range of items, including coins, ceramics, glass perfume cups and lachrymatories, figurines and statuettes, offering cups, steles, sarcophagi, and column capitals. There is also a typological display of jewelry from the Hellenistic (300 BC – 30 BC), Roman (30 BC – 300 AD), and Byzantine (300 AD – 1500s) periods.
The exhibition at the Corum Museum showcases a variety of artifacts from the Hittite and Phrygian periods, including beak-shaped vessels, bath basins, flask-shaped cups, and vases with moulds and crucibles in various shapes. The galleries also feature painted reliefed wall panels and multi-colored baked earth reliefs, as well as pottery, stone, and bronze implements from various cultures, including pots from the Chalcolithic-Old Bronze age and idols and spearheads from Alişar.
The third and fourth halls of the museum display unique rugs and kilims from the Çorum region, clothing, jewelry, and ornaments for both men and women, wooden objects, and religious manuscripts created during the Seljuk and Ottoman periods.
In the museum garden, visitors can see a fountain with a bull figure, statues from the Roman and Byzantine periods, tomb steles and milling stones, and inscriptions and tombstones from Seljuk and Ottoman periods.
As of 1997, the museum stored 12,337 items, including 3,408 archaeological materials, 2,360 ethnographic pieces, 3,169 coins, and more.
Hattusha – Capital City of Hittites
Hattusha, the capital of the Hittite civilization, played a crucial role in the development of northern Anatolia and Syria during the 2nd and 1st millennia BC. The city contained palaces, temples, trade quarters, and a necropolis, all of which provide unique insights into this now-lost civilization. The city’s impressive architecture is best exemplified by its walled fortifications, including the Lion Gate and Royal Gate, as well as the detailed sculptured friezes of Yazılıkaya’s rupestral ensemble.
Located 200 km east of Ankara on the sweeping Anatolian plains, the remains of ancient Hattusha, the town of Bogazkale, and the capital of the Hittite empire are framed by a stunning natural backdrop. The site was initially inhabited by a pre-Hittite population at the end of the 3rd millennium, which had also permitted Assyrian traders to settle in other regions.
Known as Hattush in epigraphic documents, the city was destroyed by a Hittite sovereign around 1720 BC and faced various challenges from the 18th to 12th centuries. Its ruins and rupestral ensembles bear witness to these vicissitudes.
Hattusha was initially discovered in 1834 but was not excavated until 1906 when the oldest peace treaty in the world, between Hattushili III and Pharaoh Ramses II, was found. Archaeologists were then able to identify Hattusha as a Hittite city. Since then, German and Turkish archaeologists have worked together to gain a deeper understanding of the Hittite capital.
During the 13th century, the City of Hattusha was protected by a double-wall system, with an outpost located 1.5 km from the Royal Gate to the east. Beyond the city walls to the north is the Osmankayası necropolis, which contains numerous rock-carved tombs. The Yazılıkaya rupestral sanctuary, showcasing Hittite art, can also be found there.
The most impressive remains of the city are located to the south and east, including primitive Hittite fortifications with underground passageways. The lower town to the northwest, near the village of Bogazkale, is also worth exploring.The Hittite capital of Hattusha boasts many remarkable archaeological discoveries, among them a vast temple complex dedicated to the gods of storms and the sun. The temple is surrounded by several other buildings, including storehouses, and many tablets have been discovered at its base. Just north of the temple lies a pre-Hittite settlement featuring houses built around a central courtyard.
The most remarkable find was the vast temple, dedicated to the god of storms and goddess of the sun. It’s surrounded by an array of buildings including storehouses and thousands of tablets have been found at its base. Slightly north is a pre-Hittite settlement with houses built around a central courtyard, which backs up against the temple complex.
To the south of the temple complex is the upper city, which has a complex layout. Its most prominent feature is Buyukkale, a structure atop a high peak. The Lion Gates to the west and the Royal Gate to the east are the only well-preserved monuments to the city’s original five monumental entrances. These gates, along with other parts of the city’s ramparts, offer exceptional insight into the city’s architecture, construction techniques, religious rites, rituals, and mythology.
In 1986, the Hittite capital city of Hattusha was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in recognition of its remarkable cultural significance.
Yazilikaya
Yazılıkaya, a site 2 km to the northwest of Hattusha Ancient City, was the Open Air Shrine of the Hittite Empire. Yazılıkaya consists of two rooms and a Hittite temple in front that reflects many aspects of Hittite architecture.
In the Yazılıkaya open air shrine, there is a Big Gallery which is named as Room A and a Small Gallery which are both built into natural rock. The west wall of the Big Gallery (room A) is decorated with god reliefs while the east wall is decorated with reliefs of the goddesses and the figures on both walls face the section where the main scene is and the east and west walls join the north wall.
The eastern wall of the “Big Gallery”—the room at A—features reliefs of goddesses and people, while the western wall features reliefs of gods.
Gods and goddesses are usually depicted wearing pointed hats, belts, shoes with upturned points, and earrings. They generally carry a sword or mace in one hand. Goddesses wear long skirts while gods have short garments belted at the waist. Both deities also sport cylindrical headdresses on their heads.
The north wall in which east and west walls meet depicts a central scene of the chief gods. On this elevation, we can see Mountain God Teshup standing above air gods, his wife goddess Hepatu and son Sharruma accompanied with a double headed eagle. The relief of King Tuthalia IV is on the east wall and it is the largest relief of the gallery.
The small gallery, which has its own entrance and is guarded by a winged lion-headed human-bodied genie on each side.
Twelve gods of sword are depicted on the west wall of Room B and King Tuthalia IV, under protection of God Sharruma is shown on the east wall. Besides well preserved reliefs, there are three carved niches in this section which are assumed to be for gifts or the ashes of a Hittite royal family.
With all these features and the inclusion of spaces built at the front, Yazılıkaya has survived to our times as a Hittite shrine.
Alacahoyuk
Alacahöyük is 45 kilometers away from Çorum city and 17 kilometers from Alaca town. It’s 34 kilometers from Boğazköy, 210 kilometers from Ankara.
In 1835, W.C. Hamilton first discovered this archeological site and it has since become an area of interest to the world’s scientists who visit central Anatolia.
Alacahöyük was inhabited continuously since the Chalcolithic Age, and it has four layers of culture up until the Hittite-Phrygian age. Each layer has 15 different architectural layers: The Chalcolithic Age: 4000-3000 B.C., layers 15-9 Old Bronze Age: 3000-2000, layers 8-5 Hittite Age: 1800-1200, layers 4-2 Phrygian Age: Since 750 B.C. in the first layer The first settlement in the tumulus was established over an area that was at a higher elevation than sea level and benefited from protection on both its southern side and small hills to the north; it used temperate materials for construction including stone foundations, sun-dried bricks, reeds as roofing material.
There are thirteen important tombs in Alacahöyük from the Old Bronze Age that are followed by a Chalcolithic age that had four layers. The tombs belonging to layer five and seven are located in a special area of the city.
These tombs are unique to Anatolia, representing the most ancient of burial rites. These tombs belong to adult males and females; there is no evidence that they were used for children or infants. In contrast with Central Anatolian tomb types, these graves at Alacahöyük lie in a uniform direction: east–west (inclining south).
The diverse range of gifts buried with the dead is extraordinary and includes sun disks, deers and bulls sculptures, decorative pieces, fighting tools such as daggers, swords and axes made from various materials including cooked clay, stones, gold, silver, bronze and copper.
The architectural system in Alacahöyük during the Old Bronze Age depended on the authentic building technique of Anatolia. Buildings constructed with this technique were made up of stone foundations, sun-dried bricks, flat ceilings, plastered floors and roofs that were created from earth.
The Hittite layers visible in Alacahöyük are made up of three distinct layers. These layers represent a defence system in the form of an approximately 250-metre diameter circular enclosure, with two entrances found on either side. One entrance is located near the eastern door at a location where there’s a sphinx sculpture and another due west by the tumulus’ mound.
There are two sphinxes carved on the eastern door that were once seen as religious representations. The heads of these mythical beasts have remarkable detail, and each has inflated bodies with short legs. In addition, there is a double-headed eagle carrying a rabbit in his claws inside the sphinx too.
The reliefs on the eastern and western sides of the door with sphinxes are done in low relief and detail was added. Almost all of the orthostats in the western tower form a single frieze. On the lower part, there are depictions related to cult-libation; on the upper part there are scenes from hunting expeditions. The head priest, the king and queen were depicted as praying in front of a bull during a holiday ceremony to honor the storm god and that appears in Hittite texts. Pictures on other reliefs show different phases of the ceremony with people praying before a goddess.
After walking in through the door with the sphinx, you can follow the entrance complex to your right and see the foundation of a large Hittite building. Made up of various storage rooms and other complexes, it’s known as Mabet-Saray (Temple-Palace).