The Hittites were a powerful people who at their peak




The Hittites were a powerful people who at their peak (c. 1344 – c. 1295 BC) ruled over most of Anatolia (present-day Turkey) and parts of Northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia. Their capital was Hattusa, which is located near Boğazkale in Çorum Province, Turkey.

At the highest point of the city you will find a 70-metre-long tunnel called the Yerkapi tunnel—Yerkapi meaning "Gate in the Earth"—which leads out of the city to the "Postern Gate" (bottom photo). In Hattusa's time, the gate would have been closed with double wooden doors.

No one really knows the purpose of this tunnel and gate. The Postern Gate is too far out for covering fire and the entrance is not hidden, therefore it probably wasn't used as a sally port for attacking besieging armies. It is possible though.

Yerkapi is the best preserved of several tunnels in Hattusa. It was built with roughly hewn boulders each overlapping the one below. This technique is known as corbelling. After it was constructed it was then covered in an immense artificial embankment on which the city wall and Sphinx Gate were built. 

The tunnel dates to the 14th century BC and is still safe to pass through over 3,000 years after it was constructed.

(Map of Hattusa in comment section).

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