INTRODUCTION
The Kerkenes Dag is a low granitic mountain in central Turkey (map). It has been identified with the sacred Hittite Mount Daha. The city is the largest pre-Hellenistic site known on the Anatolian Plateau, covering 2.5 square kilometres, enclosed by 7 km of strong defensive wall which can be seen from space (image).
It is now thought that the city was probably founded towards the middle of the seventh century BC, it is highly probable that it was the place that Herodotus called Pteria. If this identification is correct it would have fallen under the hegemony of the Medes by 585 BC.
Pteria
was burnt and its inhabitants enslaved by Croesus, the Lydian king
of Sardis in, traditionally, 547 BC. Because later occupation was
sparse, the greater part of this short-lived city is still visible
today.