KANES (KÜLTEPE)

First centre of the Hittite culture, the city is called Nesa. The main trading centre with the Assyrians in the th century BC, Kaneş will remain an important centre until the fall of the empire in the th century BC. If you are Interested in the Archaeology of Anatolia, this site is to be seen. The ruins are not spectacular (far from it) but the trip is still worth it. It was the French who carried out the first excavations here in 1893 at a time when the term'hittite'did not mean much. They revealed valuable clues like many wedge-shaped tablets on which the Hittites marked the result of their exchanges. These tablets are divided between the museums of Ankara and Kayseri.