Hattusa: UNESCO World Heritage and Memory of the World

Hattusa appears on two separate UNESCO lists: the city and its surroundings are on the World Heritage List, while the cuneiform tablets found there are on the Memory of the World Register. This page summarises both entries from UNESCO’s texts and those of the relevant official bodies. For the city itself see Hattuşaş, and for the district see Boğazkale History.

The World Heritage entry

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre record is titled “Hattusha: the Hittite Capital”. The year of inscription is 1986, the dossier number is 377, the property covers 268.46 hectares, and the criteria are (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv). An entry in the Türkiye Tourism Encyclopedia gives the date of inscription as 28 November 1986. The draft site management plan of the Middle Black Sea Development Agency calls Hattusa the fourth Turkish property to enter the list and notes that Türkiye became a party to the World Heritage Convention on 16 March 1983.

What the property includes

According to UNESCO’s statement of Outstanding Universal Value, the property has four parts:

• The Hittite city area, divided by the Kızlarkayası creek into a lower city in the north and an upper city in the south.
• The rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya in the north (Yazılıkaya).
• The ruins of Kayalı Boğaz about 1.5 km east of the King’s Gate; UNESCO writes that this fortified settlement may have been one of the outposts watching the roads leading to the city.
• The İbikçam Forest in the south, regarded as one of the last remaining examples of the dense forest that covered the mountains south of the capital in Hittite times.

UNESCO’s text also highlights: a double wall around the upper city with more than a hundred towers; five known gateways — two in the west, the Lion’s Gate in the south-west, the King’s Gate in the south-east and the Sphinx Gate in the south; the Sphinx Gate on an artificial bastion with a stone tunnel beneath it (Yerkapı and the Sphinx Gate); the longest known Hittite hieroglyphic inscription of the Empire period at Nişantepe; and the Great Temple in the lower city, the best-preserved Hittite temple ruin of the 13th century BCE.

The length of the wall differs between sources. UNESCO says the monumental wall around the whole city is more than 8 km long; the Türkiye Tourism Encyclopedia (2019) speaks of walls reaching six kilometres; the Hittite Monuments website describes a city of 182 hectares surrounded in the 12th century BCE by walls 3.3 km long.

The criteria

UNESCO summarises its reasoning as follows:

• (i) The fortifications, the Lion’s Gate, the King’s Gate and the Yazılıkaya rock ensemble with its sculpted friezes are unique artistic achievements.
• (ii) Hattusa exerted a dominant influence on the civilisations of Anatolia and northern Syria in the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE.
• (iii) The palaces, temples, trading quarters and necropolis give a comprehensive picture of a Hittite capital and bear unique testimony to the vanished Hittite civilisation.
• (iv) Several building types — the royal residence, the temples and the fortifications — are perfectly preserved at Hattusa.

Protection status

According to UNESCO, the city area, Kayalıboğaz and Yazılıkaya fall under Law No. 2863; the city area was declared a 1st and 2nd degree archaeological site, while Kayalıboğaz and Yazılıkaya were declared 1st degree sites. The property lies within the Boğazköy-Alacahöyük National Park, which UNESCO says was approved by Council of Ministers Decree No. 13331 of 1988. The Türkiye Tourism Encyclopedia (2024) gives the national park date as 21 September 1988 and its area as 2,600.44 hectares. Conservation is carried out jointly by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Çorum Museum. The agency’s 2024-2025 document “Hattusa: Hittite Capital Site Management Plan, Analysis Study” has been published as a draft.

The Memory of the World entry

The entry titled “The Hittite cuneiform tablets from Bogazköy” in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme was submitted by Türkiye in 2000 and registered in 2001. UNESCO’s text says the archive totals nearly 25,000 tablets and includes the tablets of the Treaty of Kadesh. Different entries in the Türkiye Tourism Encyclopedia give the registration date as 4 September 2001 and 22 January 2002; for the number of tablets, the 2017 promotional book of the Çorum Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism says more than 30,000. For the contents and languages of the tablets see Boğazköy cuneiform tablets.

Related pages

See the history of the Hattusa excavations, the Boğazköy Museum for the finds, and the Hattusa Visitor Guide for visiting.

Sources

• UNESCO World Heritage Centre, “Hattusha: the Hittite Capital” (dossier 377). https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/377/
• UNESCO Memory of the World, “The Hittite cuneiform tablets from Bogazköy”. https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/hittite-cuneiform-tablets-bogazkoy
• Middle Black Sea Development Agency (OKA), “Hattuşa: Hitit Başkenti Alan Yönetim Planı, Analiz Çalışması (Taslak) 2024-2025” (Hattusa: Hittite Capital Site Management Plan, Analysis Study, draft). https://oka.gov.tr/assets/upload/dosyalar/hattusa-ayp_29112024_alan-analizi.pdf
• Ali İzzet Yılmaz (2019) and Celal Şenol (2024), “Boğazköy (Hattuşa) Örenyeri”, Online Türkiye Turizm Ansiklopedisi. https://turkiyeturizmansiklopedisi.com/bogazkoy-hattusa-orenyeri
• Nermin Atila (2021), “Hattuşa Çivi Yazılı Tablet Arşivleri ve Kütüphaneleri”, Online Türkiye Turizm Ansiklopedisi. https://turkiyeturizmansiklopedisi.com/hattusa-civi-yazili-tablet-arsivleri-ve-kutuphaneleri
• Çorum Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, İlkler İmparatorluğu’nun Başkenti Hattuşa (Capital of the Empire of Firsts), 2017, ISBN 978-605-149-920-8. https://engelsiz.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/62253,turkcebaskikkkpdf.pdf
• Hittite Monuments, “Boğazköy”. https://www.hittitemonuments.com/bogazkoy/index.htm

Frequently asked questions

When was Hattusa inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List?

According to the UNESCO record, Hattusa was inscribed in 1986 as “Hattusha: the Hittite Capital”; the dossier number is 377.

Which places are part of the UNESCO property?

UNESCO describes the property as the Hittite city area, the rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya in the north, the ruins of Kayalı Boğaz in the east and the İbikçam Forest in the south.

Are the Boğazköy tablets also on a UNESCO list?

Yes. The Hittite cuneiform tablets from Boğazköy are on UNESCO's Memory of the World International Register with the registration year 2001; Türkiye submitted the nomination.