The Hittites

Today, in textbooks and encyclopedias we can read that the Hittites are a generic name of tribes and ethnic groups inhabiting the central and eastern part of Asia Minor and northern Syria in the 2nd - early 1st millennium BC. The name "Hittites" originally referred to the tribes "Hattie" and only in the middle of the 2nd millennium, became known as the entire population of the Hittite kingdom.

Hittite kingdom refers to the 18th century BC, but only from the second half of the 15th century to the beginning of the so-called New Kingdom, the Hittites enters into full force

Hittite kingdom refers to the 18th century BC, but only from the second half of the 15th century to the beginning of the so-called New Kingdom, the Hittites enters into full force. The three main parts of the Hittites powers were "country of the Hittites" (in the center of Asia Minor), Luviya (in south-west Asia Minor) and Pal (north or east Asia Minor).

The Hittites are mentioned in Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian texts. Of these, it was clear that the Hittites were a powerful nation that the state of the Hittites was a formidable opponent of Egypt, in the mid-11th century BC Hittites possessed great power of the East. More and more territories and peoples subjected to the Hittites under his own power.

The Hittites and their state was conquered around 1200 BC.

The Hittites are interested scientists when in 1876 George Smith began his search for the ancient city of Carchemish. Under the guidance of the Assyrian clay tablets, he reached the hill Jarabulus in Mesopotamia, where there were some ancient ruins. Smith had time to examine them and to understand that in front of him - not that other, as the ruins of Carchemish - city, located on the southern boundary of the Hittites.

Mysterious characters wrote the Hittites in the upper regions of Asia Minor, about 150 kilometers east of the modern Turkish of Ankara. Here, on the Turkish village overgrown with bushes, hills hiding the ruins of a great city... It was the capital of the ancient Hittites, the legendary Hattushash, nestled in the mountains of Anatolia. More than 15 thousand of clay tablets with cuneiform inscriptions in Hittite, Akkadian and other ancient languages of Asia, found in the ruins of Hattushash.

With the growing power of the Hittites expanded the city to the area of 121 hectares. On three sides it was surrounded by a massive defensive wall Cyclopean masonry, with the fourth side the natural border of the city of the Hittites was impregnable rock ridge. Of the five, three city gates were decorated with monumental reliefs.

The capital of the Hittites consisted of two parts - upper and lower, separated by stone ramparts. In the upper town located multi-column royal palace with a large main hall and temples dedicated to various gods. In total, the ancient capital of the Hittites built five large palaces, the ruins of which were found.

Hittite house consisted of several rooms, adjacent to each other, and the roofs of these houses Hittites constructed of wood and clay, and mostly they were one-story and flat.

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