Dorylaeum

Roman and Byzantine city remains on the northern edge of Eskişehir

Dorylaeum is the Byzantine and Roman predecessor of modern Eskişehir, and the site of two major medieval battles. Most of the ancient remains have been built over, but a low excavated tell on the northern edge of the city — the Şarhüyük site — preserves traces of the Hellenistic and Roman town. There is little to see on the ground: a few exposed walls, some grass-grown earthworks.

Casual visitors usually skip the site itself and read about Dorylaeum in the context of the local Crusader history. The Eskişehir Archaeology Museum has objects recovered from the digs.

things to do sight ruins
A story
The First Crusade fought a major battle outside Dorylaeum on 1 July 1097, defeating the Seljuk forces of Kılıç Arslan I and opening the road to Antioch and Jerusalem. A second battle on the same plain in 1147, during the Second Crusade, went the other way — Conrad III's German army was massacred. The plain itself is still recognisable to the north of the city, though there is no battlefield marker.