Tomb of Midas (and his “city” as well)
Yazılıkaya, Eskişehir, Turkey
6th-7th century BCE
The archaeological site of the so-called Midas City is situated in the Eskişehir region in Central Anatolia, near the village of Yazılıkaya (which in Turkish means something like “rock inscription”). With a few exceptions, most of the Phrygian rock-cut monuments for which the site has become famous, date back to the sixth century BCE.
The so-called Midas Monument owes its name to the fact that the word Mida is used in an inscription on the upper left-hand side of the façade, which is almost eighteen meters high. Mida was mistranslated as Midas, the name of a legendary king of Phrygia; in fact, it is a surname of Cybele, the Phrygian Mother Goddess. The so-called tomb, which is older than the rest of the city and belongs to the eighth century BCE, was in reality a sanctuary. During the ceremonies, a statue of Cybele could be placed in the niche. To the south of the Midas Monument lies a rock-cut necropolis with several Phrygian tombs. From here one can walk further on the plateau and reach another Phrygian rock-cut monument, which has remained unfinished. A little bit further you reach the impressive water cisterns, some with a flight of steps who leads to several huge underground cisterns.
