Guide
Marked to international standards over 506 kilometres, the Phrygian Way ranks among Türkiye's longest walking routes, threading the Phrygian Valleys across the uplands where Ankara, Eskişehir, Afyonkarahisar and Kütahya meet. It was laid out for walkers and cyclists along tracks the Phrygians themselves once used, and was completed in 2013 by a small volunteer team led by Hüseyin Sarı, with the backing of FRİGKÜM, an association working for the Phrygian cultural heritage.
The landscape explains the monuments. Ash thrown out by Türkmen Dağı, the Mount Elaphoeis of antiquity, hardened into a soft tuff that was easy to cut. The Phrygians, whose civilisation flourished around their capital Gordion by the 8th century BC, carved rock monuments all over this country, and stretches of their ancient roads can still be made out.
Three starting points lead to a single meeting place, Yazılıkaya, the Midas monument that was the Phrygians' cult centre. From Gordion near Polatlı the trail follows the Porsuk valley, passes Sivrihisar and the Phrygian site of Pessinus, then crosses the Sakarya valley into the uplands known as Mountainous Phrygia. Beyond Yazılıkaya it divides: one branch heads through the Asmainler, Zahran and İnli valleys, all once Phrygian settlements, and Fındıklı village to end at Yenice Çiftliği near Ahmetoğlu village, on the Kütahya–Eskişehir road; the other passes the Circassian village of Sarıcaova, the town of Döğer and Ayazini, finishing at Seydiler on the Afyonkarahisar–Ankara road.
Spring and autumn are the best seasons for walking it, though each season has its own appeal, and springs along the way give water all year round.
Getting there
The three trailheads are Gordion (Polatlı, Ankara), Seydiler (Afyonkarahisar) and Yenice Çiftliği (Ahmetoğlu village, Kütahya).
When to go
- Climate
- Across Ankara as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 0.4 °C in January to 23.6 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in May (52 mm) and lightest in August (13 mm). Long-term means for 1927-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
