A Route Through History and Culture on the Third Day of the III International Gordion Archaeofilm Festival: From Gordion to Anıtkabir, From Crimea to Ankara

On the third day of the III International Gordion Archaeofilm Festival, participating directors and jury members visited important historical and cultural sites in Ankara and Polatlı. Following a cultural tour covering Gordion, Duatepe, Anıtkabir, Ankara Castle and the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, “Crimea Day” brought the history, culture, literature, music and folk dances of Crimea into the festival program.

Organized by the Gordion Foundation, the III International Gordion Archaeofilm Festival moved beyond film screenings on its third day, inviting its guests to discover the thousands of years of history of Ankara and Polatlı on site.

Directors and jury members who had come to Türkiye from different countries for the festival visited the Ancient City of Gordion, Duatepe, Anıtkabir, Ankara Castle and the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations during the day-long cultural tour.

While festival guests brought the cultural heritage of different countries to Ankara through their films, on the third day they had the opportunity to discover the archaeological and historical heritage of the host region at first hand.

First Stop: World Heritage Site Gordion

One of the most important stops on the cultural route was Gordion, the site from which the festival takes its name.

Festival guests visited Gordion, the capital of the Phrygian civilization and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and examined the archaeological heritage of the ancient city on site.

With a history spanning nearly three thousand years, Gordion is one of the most important centers of Anatolian archaeology; it is not only the place that gives the festival its name, but also one of the fundamental reasons for the festival’s existence.

For directors producing films on archaeology and cultural heritage, seeing Gordion first-hand as part of the festival was also a meaningful encounter in terms of introducing the ancient city to international cinema circles.

As festival guests had the opportunity to closely observe Gordion’s archaeological site and surrounding cultural landscape, the connection the festival seeks to establish between cinema and archaeology was, this time, realized directly at the archaeological site.

Following the Traces of the Battle of Sakarya at Duatepe

Another stop for the festival delegation in Polatlı was Duatepe.

By visiting Duatepe, one of the important locations of the Battle of Sakarya, guests had the opportunity to see Polatlı’s significance not only for antiquity but also for Türkiye’s recent history.

After following the traces of the millennia-old Phrygian past at Gordion, the delegation encountered at Duatepe one of the important sites in the history of the Turkish War of Independence.

In this way, different historical periods of Polatlı were brought together within the same cultural route.

Festival Guests Visit Anıtkabir

The directors and jury members visited Anıtkabir as the program continued.

At Anıtkabir, where the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Türkiye, is located, festival guests had the opportunity to learn about the architecture of the monument and its place in the history of the Republic of Türkiye.

For festival guests arriving in Ankara from different countries, the visit to Anıtkabir was one of the important stops that enabled them to learn about Türkiye’s recent history and the Republican era.

Ankara Castle and Old Ankara

The festival’s cultural route continued with Ankara Castle.

Directors and jury members toured Ankara Castle, one of the city’s oldest settlement areas, and its surroundings, gaining a close view of Ankara’s historic urban fabric.

The day, which began with the traces of Phrygian civilization at Gordion, continued through Duatepe and Anıtkabir before reaching Ankara’s old city center.

The historic fabric of Ankara Castle and its surroundings showed the guests that behind the modern capital lies a multilayered city shaped over centuries.

Thousands of Years of Anatolian History at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations

Another important stop of the day was the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations.

The museum visit held particular significance for festival guests working in archaeology and cultural heritage. At the museum, which displays artifacts from different periods of Anatolian history, guests had the opportunity to see the cultural heritage left by civilizations that lived in Anatolia, beginning with the Paleolithic Age.

The Phrygian artifacts in particular established a direct connection between the museum and Gordion, from which the festival takes its name. Examples in the museum collection of artifacts unearthed in excavations at Gordion and its surroundings allowed guests to consider the archaeological site they had visited that morning from a different perspective in a museum setting.

Thus, within the same day, festival guests experienced both the archaeological site and one of the major museum collections that preserves the cultural heritage of this region.

Crimea Day at the Festival

The third day of the III International Gordion Archaeofilm Festival was not limited to cultural tours. Another major part of the day was Crimea Day.

Through Crimea Day, held as part of the festival, the history and cultural heritage of Crimea were presented to audiences in Ankara.

While Crimea has been a crossroads of different cultures for centuries, the historical experiences and migrations of the Crimean Tatars, as well as the cultural values they preserved despite being separated from their homeland, formed a central theme of the program.

The festival presented not only the historical dimension of Crimean culture but also its living cultural heritage through literature, music, traditions and folk dances.

Cengiz Dağcı Documentary Meets the Audience

A special screening of the Cengiz Dağcı documentary was held as part of Crimea Day.

The documentary, focusing on the life and world of Cengiz Dağcı, one of the important figures of Crimean Tatar literature, took audiences into Crimea’s recent history and the historical conditions that shaped Dağcı’s works.

Themes of homeland, belonging, war, migration and longing for Crimea—which occupy an important place in the works of Dağcı, who was forced to spend much of his life far from the land of his birth—were conveyed to festival audiences through the documentary.

Following the screening, a talk with the director addressed the making of the documentary and the process of bringing Cengiz Dağcı’s life to the screen.

Crimean Music and Folk Dances Take the Stage

As Crimea Day continued, the Crimean Folk Dance and Music Ensemble took the stage.

With a performance featuring melodies and folk dances from Crimean culture, the cultural memory described in the documentary met the audience this time through music and dance.

Following the longing for Crimea conveyed through the life of Cengiz Dağcı, bringing Crimea’s living culture to the stage connected the two parts of the program.

Thus, Crimea Day became a special cultural gathering that brought cinema, literature, history, music and folk dance together within a single program.

Thousands of Years of History in a Single Day

The third day of the III International Gordion Archaeofilm Festival was one of the special days demonstrating that the festival consists of far more than film screenings.

Festival guests followed the traces of Phrygian civilization at Gordion, the Turkish War of Independence at Duatepe, the history of the Republic at Anıtkabir, the historic urban fabric of the capital at Ankara Castle, and thousands of years of Anatolian civilization at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations.

In the second part of the day, the historical and cultural memory of Crimea was brought into the festival program through cinema, literature, music and folk dance.

Thus, the third day of the III International Gordion Archaeofilm Festival became a broad journey through culture and history, extending from Gordion to Duatepe, from Anıtkabir to Ankara Castle and the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, and from Ankara to Crimea.