Hattusa was the main city of the Hittite state from its inception in the 17th century BC until its collapse at the beginning of the 12th century BC. Until the 12th century, the city covered an area of 182 dunams that was surrounded by a 3.3 km long protective wall. The site is known for its impressive fortifications and monumental buildings, including a temple to the storm god and the lions’ gate. Besides the many monumental buildings and objects, the excavations revealed over 30 thousand fragments Tablets that were part of the Hittite Royal Archives The city was destroyed around 1200 BC and later abandoned.
The first westerner to visit and write about the ruins of the city was Charles Texier in 1834, but it wasn’t until the eighties of the 1800s that Archibald Sayce and William Wright recognized the city as the Hittite capital. The first proper excavations were made by Hugo Winkler and Theodore Macready in 1906, and since 1931 the city has been under almost continuous excavation by the German Archaeological Institute under the command of Kurt Bittle, Peter Neve, Jürgen Seeher and now Andreas Schachner