Midas Monument

The Midas Monument is a facade cut flat into a rock face at the village of Yazılıkaya - written rock - and it is the largest and finest surviving work of the Phrygians. It stands about seventeen metres high and sixteen wide, carved to represent the front of a building: a gabled roof with acroteria, and the whole surface filled with a geometric lattice pattern in relief, with a niche at the base that once held an image of the goddess Matar, the Phrygian mother goddess. Inscriptions in the Phrygian alphabet run along the top and side, among them a dedication by Ates, son of Arkias, and one of them contains the word Midai - a dative form of the name Midas - which gave the monument its modern name, though whether it refers to the king of the legend is not settled. It was a cult facade rather than a tomb. Around it on the plateau are stepped altars, cisterns, a second unfinished facade, the so-called Hyacinth monument and the remains of a Phrygian citadel, all free to walk; the village, home to some 45 people, lies about 66 kilometres south of Eskişehir.

What's there

• The great facade - seventeen metres of carved lattice pattern.
• The cult niche - the recess that held the goddess.
• The Phrygian inscriptions - the text naming Midas.
• The citadel plateau - altars, cisterns and an unfinished facade.

When to go

April to June and September to October. Late afternoon light rakes across the carved pattern and shows it best; the plateau is exposed year-round.

Before you go

There is no ticket office, guide or interpretation beyond a panel. The plateau above involves scrambling on rock. No facilities in the village beyond a tea house. A car is essential.

Nearby

The wider Phrygian Valley sites at Ayazini, Döğer and Kümbet are within an hour; Eskişehir is north.

Key facts