Phrygia

Area in western Turkey on the Anatolian plateau, the boundaries of which cannot be defined precisely. The Phrygians were originally Europeans, called Phryges by the Greeks, who crossed the Hellespont from Macedonia and Thrace and settled here. This migration followed the general pattern of invasions from Europe into this section of Asia Minor. The Phrygians formed a powerful confederacy that flourished between the downfall of the Hittite Empire and the rise of the Lydian Empire, that is, between the 7th and the 13th centuries before Christ.

Their religious capital was at “Midas City,” modern Yazilikaya, about 150 miles (241.4 kilometers) southwest of Ankara. This “city of Midas” consisted of an acropolis, defended by a wall with towers, and a lower city. Within a large cave was a spring, approached by steps cut in the rock, which supplied water for the upper and lower cities. The famous tomb or monument of King Midas has a Phrygian inscription that mentions the goddess “Mida,” identified with Cybele the mother goddess, considered to be the mythical mother of the king. French archaeologists in 1948–49 discovered remains that indicate the city was destroyed in the sixth century BC, rebuilt about a century later, and finally destroyed in the third century BC.