.
Ancient settlement The ancient
Phrygian capital
Gordion is 10 km from the city of Polatlı. On the outskirts of Polatli there is an archaeological mound of the same name, the remains of a multi-layered settlement of the Bronze Age (3rd-2nd millennium BC). Since the mound was being used by local people as a quarry, rescue excavations of its southern and central parts were carried out in 1949 by the Anglo-Turkish expedition led by
Seton Lloyd, and Nuri Gökçe, then the director of the ‘Hittite Museum in Ankara’. It was a village along the important caravan route.
Classical antiquity On his expedition to the east,
Alexander the Great cut the famous
Gordian Knot, an omen of his coming rule over the whole Asia.
Pessinus, an ancient city on the upper river Sangarios (modern day
Sakarya River), is also within the borders of Polatlı. The mythological Phrygian
King Midas is said to have ruled from Pessinus and to be buried here. Polatlı also occupied an important place in the
Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922 as the
Battle of Sakarya (August 23-September 13, 1921) was fought here, the utmost eastern point reached by the advancing
Greek Army in
Anatolia. There are two memorial burial grounds of those lost in the battle. There is also a monument named
Mehmetçik Monument about the battle just west of Polatlı. == Hacıtuğrul mound ==