Yaz?l?kaya, which is Turkish for ”Inscribed Rock”, is a monument dedicated to Goddess Cybele and King Midas of Phrygia. Phrygia was an ancient civilization ruled mainly in the west of the Central Anatolia region of Turkey between 1200-700 BC. It is perhaps the most famous Phyrigian rock-cut facade located in Phrygian Valley, in Eski?ehir province, on a plateau that bears the same name as the monument. Yaz?l?kaya region (or Midas City) was the second most important developmental place for the Phrygia, after their capital Gordion.

When Colonel William M. Leake stumbled upon this place during a military trip from Istanbul to Egypt, he examined the monument. In 1824, he published a book describing his journey and attached a sketch of the monument. The Phrygian Valley, in that way, attracted the attention of the West.
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Yaz?l?kaya gets its name from the carved patterns and inscriptions on it. It is the largest of the Phyrigian rock-cut monuments in the Valley, measuring 17 meters and it dates back to the 7th or 6th century BC.

Phyrigians built the monument with an intricately decorated facade for the goddess Cybele, the highest deity of the Phyrigian state. Mother Goddess Cybele was one the most powerful and famous gods in the ancient Anatolian civilizations. Since the Phyrigians believed that Cybele lived in high places, they built the monument on a cliff. The niche in the middle most probably housed a statue of Kybele but the original figu...