Archaeologists discover fearsome Bronze Age fortress in Turkey

Archaeological site in Lebanon with relics from the Bronze Age

(Image credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/Getty Images)

published 11 August 2015

At one time, ancient Troy supposedly spread out over 74 acres, protected by a citadel with walls over 30 feet tall. Not bad for the Bronze Age — but not big enough to be the largest fortress in the Aegean. Not even close. That honor goes to a recently discovered castle in Turkey's Gölmarmara Lake region, a Turkish archaeologist says.

"This area is four times larger than the ancient site of Troy in Çanakkale and the largest late Bronze Age settlement that has been found in the Aegean region," Yaşar University's Sinan Ünlüsoy told Hürriyet Daily News. The fortress is mentioned in a Hittite text, Ünlüsoy says, and is supposedly the largest of six built by the ancient Lydian empire in the region. They're each a day's walk from each other, Archaeology notes, which must have established quite a fearsome perimeter.