The Iron Empire
The Hittites were an ancient people who built an empire that lasted for about a thousand years, from around 1340 to 1200 BCE in what is now modern Turkey and parts of northern Syria. An Indo-European people, the Hittites were originally from around the Caspian Sea who later moved into southern Turkey around 2000 BC. Unlike other Semitic people who had lived in the area, the Hittites rode horses, and even built wagons and chariots. Depiction of a Hittite chariot (from an Egyptian relief) Most information about the Hittites came from the royal library discovered in 1906 in the ruins of Khattushas, the ancient capital of the Hittite Empire, near Bogaz Koi in Turkey. The library—one of the largest and oldest to be discovered—yielded 10,000 clay tablets containing a wealth of information about the empire, written in cuneiform. Archaeologists were able to gather information from these and other documents and from the remains of their great fortified cities. Around 3