CHAPTER 6

The Setting for an

Empire

I

nChapter 7,we shall see how Tudhaliya went about laying
the foundations of the Hittite empire. Later, we shall watch
the empire’s progress through triumph, setback, disaster and
resurgence until itsfinal collapse in the early twelfth century. But
first of all let’s try to reconstruct the physical setting in which these
developments took place.
The satellite image of Anatolia and northern Syria in Map I.1
highlights the main physical features of the regions covered by
our story. Now have a look at Map 6.1,‘The Hittite world’.^1 This
provides a reconstructed layout of the cities, towns, kingdoms and
countries which made up the Hittite world, based mainly on
information provided by our written sources. Archaeological
remains, topographical features and other data often supplement
this information. But much remains conjectural. Therein lies the
problem of what the archaeologist James Mellaart once described as
‘the guessing game known as Hittite geography’. We need no longer
be quite so cynical. Since Mellaart made that statement 40 years ago,
scholars have made significant progress in their research on the
political geography of the Hittite world.

RECONSTRUCTING A MAP OF THEHITTITE WORLD

In any case, locating the Syrian territories which came under Hittite
control always involved less guesswork thanfinding places for most