Gordion - Tumuli / Tomb of Gordios

Beyond the village of Yassihüyük a number of burial mounds flank both sides of the Polatli road. The so-called Tomb of Gordios, 53m/174ft high with a diameter of 250m/820ft, facing the site's small museum, is the second largest of its kind in Anatolia (after the 69m/226ft high Tumulus of Alyattes at Bin Tepe near Sardes). Having been erected only at the beginning of the seventh century B.C. at the earliest, the man-made burial mound can hardly be Gordius's tomb, but more probably that of the legendary Midas. On the southwest side a 70m/230ft-long passage leads down to the burial chamber, 39m/130ft below the top of the mound. The 5 x 6m/16 x 20ft chamber, concealed beneath a mass of limestone blocks, was originally without an entrance. The wooden beam walls and gable roof have survived. The chamber was protected from robbers by a 3m/10ft-thick layer of rubble and against damp by 40m/131ft of clay overlaid with gravel. To the left inside the chamber was a bed on which lay the undamaged skeleton of a man, more than 60 years of age and about 1.6m/5ft 3ins tall, his clothes fastened with well-preserved bronze fibulae (of which a total of 175 were found in the burial chamber). Around the walls stood tables laden with rich grave gifts, few of which were of precious metal despite Midas's reputed love of gold.

The other, smaller mounds contain tombs from the period 725 to 550 B.C. The so-called Child's Tomb to the southeast of the museum yielded some rather special treasures including wooden furniture, ivory reliefs and box-wood carvings.