"Temples in ruins
in the Anatolian sun.
Stone's secret persists."
— h/t ChatGPT
Today's photo-of-the-day is from the ruins of Hattusa, in central Turkey.
Hattusa was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age (c. 3300
— c. 1200 BCE). The remains of at least thirty-one temples survive at
Hattusa. The Green
Stone is a roughly cubic block of nephrite standing in the remains of the
Great Temple. It is believed to have had some religious use or purpose, but
what that may have been is unknown. The local inhabitants call the stone a
"wish stone" and attribute to it magical wish-granting properties. It's
amazing to me how little information remains of one of the world's largest
empires of antiquity. And how people, even today, use magic to explain
phenomena they don't understand.
Bonus photo after the jump.